Not much relief by Colon in Yanks debut
Bartolo Colon pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. (April 3, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
The Yankees tried to bail a laboring Phil Hughes out of trouble, only to see Bartolo Colon dig the hole deeper.
The righthander, making his first appearance since July 24, 2009, with the White Sox, replaced Hughes to begin the fifth and gave up four runs, six hits and a walk in four innings in his Yankees debut, a 10-7 loss.
Colon gave up a two-run homer to Brennan Boesch in the fifth that gave Detroit a 7-4 lead, then made it 9-6 by allowing an RBI double by Ramon Santiago and a sacrifice fly by Boesch in the sixth. He then pitched two scoreless innings and finished with five strikeouts.
Joe Girardi insisted Colon had "plenty of time" to warm up and defended his decision to stick with him. "If you start using your guys every day,'' he said, "you're going to run into a problem where you don't have them when you're winning games."
Yanks play long ball
On a day when the wind was blowing out toward rightfield, the Yankees had a good day offensively. With a solo shot in the third, Mark Teixeira became the first Yankee since Dave Winfield (1983) to homer in each of the team's first three games. Jorge Posada recorded his 17th multi-homer game (first since Sept. 1, 2009) with a pair of two-run shots. Robinson Cano hit his first homer, Nick Swisher was 3-for-3 with two walks and Russell Martin went 3-for-4.
Weber back in his seat
Yankees coaching assistant Brett Weber was back in his seat behind home plate, according to another Twitter photo by TV personality Keith Olbermann. On Saturday, Major League Baseball called to remind the Yankees that staff members are not allowed to hand-signal pitch speeds. Sunday, Olbermann tweeted: "Brett Weber, Yankee coaching assistant, is back in his seat. No indication that there is any signaling going on."
