The Yankees know what they are doing when it comes to opening day.

The Yankees held off the Detroit Tigers for a 6-3 victory at Yankee Stadium earlier today. That makes the 11th straight opening da victory for New York.

The crowd got their money’s worth in the 7th inning when Curtis Granderson hit a go-ahead homerun. It was later followed up by a 3-run shot by Mark Teixeira that sealed the win.

“It was great — except for the weather,” said Granderson, who arrived in New York around 11 p.m. Wednesday after playing in a rehabilitation game with minor leaguers in Tampa, Fla., earlier in the day.

CC Sabathia was a workhorse on the mound and had a great day recording 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. The bullpen finished up the game in solid fashion. Joba and Mariano Rivera came in and made sure that this one didn’t get away from the Yankees.

“Their bullpen and the long ball is what did us in today,” Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. “I thought it was actually a decent game for the conditions. It was pretty rough.”

This means…

1. The Yankees are going to start off the year hot. If they can get a win off a solid pitcher like Verlander, they are going to keep swinging it with confidence.
2. The Yankees pitching staff will do just fine this year. Yes, they aren’t as stacked as Boston or Philly, but who cares. They will find a way to win.

Bryce Harper, the young phenom that was the number one pick in the MLB draft last recorded his first RBI of his major league career against the New York Yankees. Big deal.

This kid is getting a lot of hype for the small things. I think he will be a great player but the media is currently giving him way too much love.

He will be headed to the minors this year and if he plays well, he could potentially end up in the bigs by the end of the year.

The interesting thing about his first RBI is that his favorite team growing up was the New York Yankees. Very ironic to get his first RBI against the Yankees.

New York Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli injured himself when he fouled a ball off of his left foot on Wednesday.  This injury will  most likely put Cervelli on the sideline for the next six-to-eight weeks.

This will have some interesting ramifications with who wil be the Yankees starting catcher for opening day and throughout the first few weeks of the regular season.

We know that Jorge Posada will not be behind the plate come opening day. He is getting older and they are going to save his knees and use him only as a DH this year.

This will give room for one of the back-ups to step into the big show and see what they can get done. From the looks of who they currently have on the roster, Russell Martin will look to get the start and receive most of the innings behind the dish. However, if he gets injured it will be interesting to see who they will throw in out of Jesus Montero or Austin Romine.

Both are solid players and are exciting to watch.

Regardless, this injury shouldn’t be too detrimental for the Yankees. They have enough bats in the lineup and none of the pitchers are super set on having a specific catcher.

The Yankees lineup included Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Jorge Posada, and Alex Rodriguez. The Red Sox lineup consisted of Oscar Tejada, Jose Iglesias, and Juan Carlos Linares. The Yankees lost 5-4.

What is wrong with this picture?

I understand that it is “only spring training” however, it is a loss to the Red Sox. Regardless of when the loss took place, I still hate losing to the Red Sox, and so should the Yankees.

The Yankees played a pretty good game but they couldn’t close it out. They tied the game in the seventh inning,but in the botton half, the Red Sox had a rally and the Yankees didn’t answer.

The three youngsters previously mentioned went a combined 6 for 7 with 4 RBIs.

Could this possibly be the story for the Yankees in 2011? Are they too old? Do they need to go out and get some young talent like the Red Sox and other AL teams?

Only time will tell.