Yankees Spring Training Game 10: Tanaka starts

New York Yankees 4 -- Philadelphia Phillies 3

It took an extra hour and a half due to poor weather but Masahiro Tanaka made his first Spring start of the season. Tanaka would start with a pair of ground outs and a strikeout of second baseman Chase Utley with his signature splitter. The Japanese righty would give up his first extra base hit in the second inning when Marlon Byrd hit a double into the right center field gap. Tanaka would also give up his first run and home run when Freddy Galvis hit a home run deep to right field.

Overall, this was not a bad start by Masahiro Tanaka. In three innings, Tanaka gave up one run on two hits, the home run with one strikeout.

Another good sign for the Yankees coming to this season, first baseman Mark Teixeira and Alfonso Soriano made their Spring debuts. Teixeira would go hitless today with a ground out, fly out and pop out in three at-bats. Alfonso Soriano, recovering from a flu, would go hitless in his debut too. The right-handed bat would strikeout in all three of his at-bats today.

Unlike his recently debuting teammates, shortstop Derek Jeter has been having plenty of at-bats this Spring, but he was held hitless until today's game. The Captain would get a single in the third inning and a double in the fifth inning. The Captain is slowly returning to form that fans have been familiar with for 19 years.

In today's game, the long ball was prevalent. In the third inning, right fielder Ramon Flores put the Yankees on the board with a solo home run. Carlos Ruiz and John Mayberry would go back-to-back in the fifth inning to put the Phillies ahead by two.

The Yankees would rally back in the later part of the game with a run-scoring single in the seventh, a double in the eighth and a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth to win the game in comeback fashion.