Tampa Bay Rays 3 — New York Yankees 4
Michael Pineda makes his Spring debut and cruised through his two innings of work. Pineda got a pair of strikeouts in his first inning of work around a single by Desmond Jennings. In the second inning, Pineda kept his infield busy with three ground outs.
In the bottom of the second inning, Brian McCann hit a one-out double to right field. Chase Headley would reach base on a rare error in the corner of deep left field and Alex Rodriguez would cash in on a line drive single to left field, scoring the first run of the game. Stephen Drew would walk to load the bases and Didi Gregorius would productively ground out to bring home Headley for the second run of the game.
For the third inning, the other young arm in the Yankees projected starting rotation took the mound. Nathan Eovaldi came into the game and generated a pair of ground outs around a strikeout in a clean inning. In the fourth inning, Eovaldi would give up a pair of hits but bounced back to get two more strikeouts.
In the fifth inning, Eovaldi would keep it going. After a single by Alexi Casilla, Eovaldi and Brian McCann would get a pair of outs/ Bobby Wilson would go down on strikes and Casilla would be gunned down trying to steal second base. Eovaldi would finish his appearance with one more strikeout to finish off a fine day of work by a pair of starting pitchers expected to make a big impact on the major league level.
In five scoreless innings, Michael Pineda and Nathan Eovaldi combined to allow just four hits without a walk and seven strikeouts.
In the seventh inning, young Yankees would double the lead. Rob Refsnyder started the inning with a sharp single to left field. With one out, Refsnyder would display some heads-up baserunning, stealing second base before the pitcher had even released the ball. The steal would pay off when Slade Heathcott hit a single to center field, scoring Refsnyder and a wide throw home allowed Heathcott to get to second base. After a two-out walk of Tyler Austin, Greg Bird would battle to a full count and fouled off a few before hitting a line drive to right field, bouncing out of play for a run-scoring ground-rule double.
In the eighth inning, reliever Diego Moreno would struggle, a walk and a hit batter put himself in a bad spot. A potential double play featured a wide throw of first base by Refsnyder, allowing the Rays to score a run. A pair of two out singles would score two more runs and the four-run lead had decreased to just one.
Chris Martin would give up a one-out double in the ninth inning but a pair of strikeouts would kill any hopes of a comeback by the Rays as the Yankees would go on to win.
In three at-bats, Alex Rodriguez got two hits and drove in his first run of the Spring. David Carpenter and Justin Wilson made appearances in today’s game, each providing a scoreless inning of work.
Notables
Rays
*Eugenio Velez – 1 for 2, R, RBI (1)
*Jake Elmore – 1 for 1, RBI (1)
Yankees
*Alex Rodriguez – 2 for 3, RBI (1)
*Greg Bird – 1 for 1, 2B, RBI (4)
Current Yankees Spring Record: 5-2
