Yanks Rise to Overcome Challenge in First Game Without Rivera

When you play in New York, you get the big money, the headlines, the movie starlets, but you also get absurd media micro-analysis of every little detail of the game. Today, in day one of P.M. (Post-Mariano), the Yankees rose to overcome the loss of their lights-out closer, and David Robertson proved up to the task, striking out the side in the ninth inning (albeit a non-save situation).

Of course, had the Yankees lost, the New York media would be wailing at how huge the loss of Rivera looms over the team, how Girardi doesn't know how to manage a pen without his security blanket, with probably a few shots at how A-Rod is disturbing the chemistry of the clubhouse and causing them all to choke. Ah, Mike Francesca, don't ever change.

As for the game itself, it was a pretty lackluster event all around. Chen looked pretty sharp for six innings, then gave up two-out hits to the worst two hitters in the Yankees lineup, two guys that would fit more in the Omaha Stormchasers lineup than the Yankees lineup. At that point, Chen probably shouldn't have faced the red-hot future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, but Ned left him out to give up a two-run home run to put the game away. It got out of hand pretty quickly. Brick even killed a guy!

The Royals just didn't muster much offense against a very good pitcher in C.C. Sabathia. Gordo and Frenchy knocked home runs in the first, but the Royals managed just four hits the rest of the game. Twice they had a runner at third with two outs, and both times they stranded him. It was a game worth of your best David Baldacci novel.

Well, its Friday night. Go out and watch "The Avengers" already!