Yankees pitchers threw a three-hit shutout against the five-time NL East champion Phillies today, but they also gave up five runs to the 99-loss Twins. Such is the nature of Spring Training games. Time to compare the successful Yankees to the bizarro Yankees.
Starting Pitchers
Successful Yankees: CC Sabathia pitched three scoreless against a Phillies lineup that only included one All-Star (Shane Victorino). He worked out of a first-and-second-no-out jam in the first by inducing lazy fly balls from Victorino and Ty Wigginton and a groundout from... Lou Montanez. After that, it was seven up, six down, with two strikeouts and a mere Texas League single by the immortal Erik Kratz. Nice work from the ace.
Bizarro Yankees: Phil Hughes actually outpitched CC despite playing on the losing team. He threw three scoreless against a Twins lineup that featured Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Josh Willingham, and most of their other regulars. The lone blemishes were a Ben Revere leadoff single and a Ryan Doumit walk. Our own Lord Duggan reported in a comment, "A lot of strikes, stayed ahead in the count, 91-92 with the FSFB, pitched to contact and got a good number of weak outs." That's great news, we're all hoping Hughes can keep up the good work.
More after the jump.
Offense
Successful Yankees: Against the Phils' Kyle Kendrick, the Yankees mounted a couple rallies in the first and third inning, but to no avail. Derek Jeter singled to right twice off of him, but the team's only other hit against Kendrick came from Bill Hall, who was then forced out by Chris Dickerson. Dickerson was also thrown out at the plate on a grounder back to the mound with runners on first and third (not sure why he went...), but he made up for it with a two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded in the fourth against Phillies mop Austin Hyatt. The Yankees' reserves tacked on another run in the seventh with a Justin Maxwell double and an error from Phillies third baseman Hector Luna. Outside of that, not much else to report- Cano had a single, Russell Martin was hit by a pitch and stole his fourth base of the Spring (odd), and Eric Chavez continued to look lost at the plate with a strikeout and two pop-ups (why was he given a major-league deal again?). Tex and A-Rod went hitless as well, though Tex had some tough luck lining into a double play.
Bizarro Yankees: Though the Yankees out-hit the Twins nine to eight, they only scored one run. Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, and Francisco Cervelli all doubled against different Twins pitchers (Nick Blackburn, Aaron Thompson, and Brian Duensing, respectively). Cervelli actually had a great day with three hits in three at bats, and he drove in the only team's run of the day with a single in the sixth against Thompson. Brett Gardner was hit by a pitch, then walked in the fifth and stole a base off Joe Mauer. I'll take more of that please. Corban Joseph tried to steal as well but was picked off by Twins pitcher Jeff Manship. Fail. In "How are the potential DHs?" news, both Raul Ibanez and Jorge Vazquez went hitless in three at bats. Yay.
Relief pitching
Successful Yankees: Mariano Rivera made his Spring debut today and actually got credit for the win when he relieved CC with a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. The five-headed monster of Boone Logan, Cory Wade, Clay Rapada, Chase Whitley, and Kevin Whelan finished the game with five scoreless innings (each pitched a full frame and struck out at least one batter). Only the lefty Rapada allowed a hit, and he struck out two (including the only lefty he faced), so it was fine.
Bizarro Yankees: Top-10 prospect Adam Warren relieved Hughes and was unimpressive. He pitched three innings, surrendered three hits, a walk, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch, three line-outs, and a solo homer to minor leaguer Joe Benson. He did work around the problems to only surrender that one run, but it was not pretty. Reliever Graham Stoneburner came on in the seventh and after falling behind 3-0 in the count to Danny Valencia, surrendered a solo homer. He also gave up a hit to Benson, but was bailed out by catcher Kyle Higashioka, who gunned him down trying to steal second. The score was 2-1 Twins when ultimate leftyrighty mop Adam Miller entered the game for the Yankees in the eighth. A double, a walk, and a three-run homer to career minor leaguer Mike Hollimon later, and the game was effectively over. Miller actually lowered his Spring ERA from 135.00 to 54.00. Fantastic. Sounds like someone needs a DFA soon.
Defense
Both teams were errorless! Hooray.
The Yankees now stand at 5-5 in the Spring.