The New York Yankees defeated the Chicago Cubs 7-3 in the first baseball game ever played at the new Yankee Stadium on Friday, April 3rd.  Although the Cubs took an early 3-0 lead, Ted Lilly couldn’t hold the lead for the victory.  Lilly gave up 7 earned runs on 8 hits, including 3 home runs, while striking out 2 batters.  Aaron Miles led the Cubs by going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s and 1 run scored.  Joey Gathright also had 2 hits for the Cubs in defeat.  The pitching bright spot – Aaron Heilman worked 2 scoreless innings, while Neal Cotts worked 2/3 of a scoreless inning and Kevin Gregg worked a scoreless 8th inning.

Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano and Cody Ransom each homered for the Yankees.  Cano, Derek Jeter and Xavier Nady each had 2 hits for the Yankees.  After Chien-Ming Wang gave up 4 earned runs on 6 hits in the first 5 innings, the Yankees relievers – led by Mariano Rivera – shut down the Cubs offense – not allowing a hit in the final 4 frames of the game.

The two teams play again today before starting the regular season in earnest on Monday.  Rich Harden will face off against Andy Pettite in Saturday’s matinee.