After Monday’s lackluster 10-5 loss to the Orioles, I heard the word “bust” mentioned in the same sentence with free agent pick-ups CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira quite often. Yankee fans at local bars were acting like their team just fell out of playoff contention while antagonizers were needling them & christening Sabathia and Teixeira as the second comings of Ed Whitson and Danny Tartabull. Allow me to channel my inner Kevin Bacon with the following:

REMAIN CALM! ALL IS WELL!

All these cries of anguish certainly are the sounds of madness. Just in case anyone forgot, that was just Game 1 of 162. We have a lot of baseball left to play.

Sabathia’s performance (4.1 innings, six runs on eight hits and five walks, no strikeouts) left a poor first impression as a Yankee, but a sluggish start is not foreign territory for the $161 million man. Just last  year, Sabathia coughed up 27 runs in 18 innings during his first four start, including an April 11 debacle against the offensively-challenged Athletics where he gave up nine runs on 12 hits and two walks in 3.1 innings. From what I understand, Sabathia did pretty well for himself after April, right?

Teixeira also had a largely forgettable game as he went 0-for-4 with a walk and stranded five runners on base. It was last year, too, that “Tex” started slower than molasses going up a tree. It wasn’t until April 25, his 21st game of the season, that his batting average creeped above .250 for the first time. So calm down and relax, all ye alarmists out there. Plus, there were plenty of positives to take out of the game, too.

First and foremost (in my opinion), Jorge Posada seems to be back. His leadoff home run in the sixth inning gives me more confidence that his shoulder is pretty close to full strength. I didn’t get to see how Posada looked when trying to throw out Cesar Izturis’ steal attempt, so my judgement is out on that. The Yankees’ table-setters–Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon–seem to be in working order. The duo combined to go 5-for-8 with a triple, a walk, an RBI and a run scored.

Hideki Matsui also showed he is in fine hitting form after clubbing a two-run homer off Chris Ray in the seventh.

CF Brett Gardner

And let’s not forget the new center fielder, Brett Gardner, either. (As you probably can tell, I’ve quickly become a fan of Mr. Gardner.) He wasn’t spectacular at the plate, going 1-for-3 with an opposite-field single in the third and a run scored. He also misplayed a ball hit by Brian Roberts in the fifth that went for a ground-rule double, but it seemed the sun was giving all the outfielders problems that day.

What stood out, obviously, was the nifty double play he helped turn later that inning. The Yanks’ 2005 third-round draft pick caught a fly ball from Gregg Zaun, then gunned down Melvin Mora at home for the third out, keeping the deficit at 6-3.

It is very rare for me to hone in on a particular player. They all come and go, but Gardner is the kind of player who brings me back to the late 90s. He’s no big-name rookie, like an Evan Longoria or Matt Wieters, but he brings with him a quiet intensity and the ability to do all the little things necessary to win; the kind of player the Yankees were stocked with during their latest dynastic run. That and the guy is just fun to watch.

Now, as long as the bullpen shows that Monday’s pitiful performance was just a rare occaision, Yankee fans should not be getting too worried. But, as we all know, the worry-warts will come out in full force the next time the Yankees lose a game.

- Michael Echan