Jose Cruz Jr. hit a tying home run that sparked a comeback, Tino Martinez helped beat his former team with his 300th career homer and the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays roughed up Mike Mussina in defeating the Yankees 8-3 Tuesday night.
"Hopefully, it's 5 a.m. and not many people were watching," Alex Rodriguez said, thinking of when the game began, New York time.
The team that dominates the AL East couldn't do much in the Far East, getting outhit 15-7 and playing sluggishly in the field.
A-Rod's first game in pinstripes won't be remembered fondly in the Bronx. He took called third strikes his first two times up before doubling and popping out. But he did make three sparkling defensive plays at third base, the position he switched to when Texas traded him to New York last month.
Hideki Matsui had the first hit of the major league season, a first-inning double in front of the fans who adore their homegrown hero, and he scored on Jason Giambi's, opposite-field, two-run homer to left. Gary Sheffield also had a checked-swing, RBI double in his first game for New York.
But aside from that, the defending American League champions seemed jetlagged against the younger Devil Rays.
"We don't look like we're that alive, yet," said Mussina, who hasn't slept well since making the 7,250-mile trip last week from Tampa, Fla. "We need a little life, and we just didn't have it."
At the sushi stands and sake bars in the Tokyo Dome, most of the talk was about baseball's most famous club. Yet after circling halfway around the globe, all those All-Stars fell flat against one of baseball's least-known teams.
"I'm sure that there are a lot of people driving to work right now saying, `Who are those guys?"' Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli said.
In the second opener played by major league teams in Japan, Mussina looked as if he would have rather been back home. Trying to become the 100th pitcher with 200 wins, he gave up a broken-bat, two-run single to Toby Hall in the fourth, then let Cruz tie it 3-all in the sixth with his homer.
Martinez, Julio Lugo and Toby Hall followed with consecutive doubles for a 5-3 lead and chased Mussina, who took the loss.
Paul Quantrill got three outs on three pitches to get out of the inning, but left after his fourth pitch, when Rodriguez banged into his right knee trying to field Rocco Baldelli's bunt single leading off the seventh.
Felix Heredia let the game spin away, making a wild pickoff for a two-base error before his first pitch, then allowing a single to Aubrey Huff and a two-run homer to Martinez, playing his first game for his hometown team.
"Obviously, to beat the Yankees is great," said Martinez, who helped the Yankees win four World Series titles from 1996-2000. "The fans here love them, but we made them cheer for us, too."
Victor Zambrano got the win for the Devil Rays, who have finished last in all six seasons they've been in the majors. He allowed three runs and six hits in six innings.
The hosts did their best to duplicate the atmosphere of games back home, with some twists, of course.
The Yankees, including Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson, were introduced to "New York, New York," while the Devil Rays came out to Anastacia.
Even though New York was the visiting team, the Yankees wore their famous pinstripes -- the Hall of Fame couldn't find any records of them having done that before.
Actor Billy Crystal gave Yankees manager Joe Torre a good-luck telephone call, and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi threw out ceremonial first pitches.
Women in pink-and-green kimonos presented Torre and Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella with bouquets. Many of the ads on the outfield walls were in Japanese kanji script, and women vendors walked through the aisles selling whiskey.
When Derek Jeter led off the game, several U.S. servicemen from the New York area played the role of the Yankee Stadium Bleacher Creatures, serenading him from the left-field seats with singsong chants of his name.
Flashbulbs popped whenever Matsui walked to the plate. During 10 seasons in this ballpark with the Yomiuri Giants, he became Japan's biggest baseball star.
Fans saw two teams at the major league extremes. New York, flush with cash, opened the season with a major league-record payroll $182.8 million, more than six times that of Tampa Bay, among the two lowest in the major leagues at $29.2 million.
Nine of New York's 10 starters were former All-Stars -- the only All-Star in the Devil Rays' lineup was Martinez.
After the game, New York's clubhouse was subdued. Jackson thought about how owner George Steinbrenner, who did not make the trip, would react.
"He won't be happy," Jackson said.
Notes
- Kevin Brown pitches for the Yankees against Jeremi Gonzalez on Wednesday.
- The rest of the major-league teams start opening Sunday, when Boston is at Baltimore.
- Dropped to the ninth spot in the Yankees' lineup, Kenny Lofton tripled his first time up and flied out to the warning track in his second at-bat.
- Quantrill told Torre he should be OK, but the Yankees won't know for sure until Wednesday.
The Associated Press News Service
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