Mood Music - I'm Gonna Crawl by Led Zeppelin
Getting the start for the New York Yankees, Manny Banuelos again looked strong, but erratic. Cranking his fastball up to 95 MPH and working in his curveball and changeup, Banuelos pitched three innings, allowing one run on two hits and three walks, as well as recording three strikeouts. While his stuff again looked excellent and he was again able to wiggle out of some jams, Man-Ban worked into a lot of deep counts, ran up his pitch count, and was often wild with his fastball.
After Man-Ban's three innings, the projected major league bullpen pitched to Gustavo Molina. Molina had not caught the majority of the Yankees relievers, and when we decide that we want a truly horrendous player to make our roster as the backup player, we need to make sure they catch at least one inning of Mariano Rivera.
Mariano Rivera, Rafael Soriano, Boone Logan, David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Mark Prior, and Luis Ayala combined to give up one run in the remaining six frames (with the run being charged to Soriano).
Offensively, Kevin Correia was able to keep the Yankees off-balance by throwing a wide arsenal of pitches, with the only real breakthrough being a massive two run blast from Alex Rodriguez in the first inning. I don't know what to make of A-Rod's torrid spring, but he does look fantastic at the plate. He has always said that he hits his home runs in bunches, and while his mashing is encouraging, it's a shame that one such bunch is being wasted in exhibition games.
Newly acquired Chris Dickerson went 3-3 with two singles, a double, and an RBI, but left the game with an apparent hamstring pull. The final Yankee run came on an Austin Krum single.
Also, does Andrew McCutchen ever make outs?
The Yankees will take on the Twins tomorrow at 1:05