OAKLAND – Johnny Damon hasn’t taken his first hack atop the Yankee lineup, but he is predicting greatness for his new playmates.
“It’s pretty good with all those Hall-of-Famers behind me,” Damon said. “We have a chance to be one of the best of all time.”
Considering the order of the names that will face A’s lefty Barry Zito tonight, Damon is on target. Damon will bat first, Derek Jeter second, Gary Sheffield third, Alex Rodriguez fourth, Jason Giambi fifth, Hideki Matsui sixth, Jorge Posada seventh, Bernie Williams eighth and Robinson Cano ninth. Jeter, Sheffield and A-Rod are Cooperstown bound.
Damon’s addition provides the Yankees with their first true leadoff hitter since Chuck Knoblauch (1998-2001). Alfonso Soriano and Jeter were productive in the No. 1 spot, but Damon works pitchers better and gives the No. 2 and 3 hitters more of a look.
“I have always said that Johnny Damon is the best leadoff hitter in the game along with Ichiro, and Derek is a great No. 2 hitter,” A-Rod said. “[Damon] presents a lot of problems for the opposition.”
Rodriguez is embracing batting clean-up, behind Damon, Jeter and Sheffield.
“I like it a lot,” said A-Rod, who batted .307 (101-for-329) in the clean-up spot last season. “With Damon, Jeter and Sheff, guys who are very high on-base percentage guys, we are going to get a lot of opportunities to do a lot of damage.”
Joe Torre didn’t have a rock-solid reason his card looks the way it does. He didn’t have a problem with two sets of lefties batting back to back against the left-handed Zito since Giambi and Matsui are hitting sixth and seventh, respectively, and Cano and Damon are hitting ninth and first, respectively.
“Don’t ask me why, that’s just the way I decided to do it,” Torre said.
Torre has Jorge Posada behind the plate to catch Randy Johnson. It will be the first game Posada has started with Johnson since July 1 when the battery-mates had a difficult time getting on the same page. Posada did catch Johnson in relief during Game 5 of the ALDS against the Angels.