Yankees 0, Red Sox 1: Doomed by Errors

Ivan Nova shook off his control issues from his last outing in four strong innings against the Red Sox this evening. Nova got back to his old ways of inducing ground balls, and allowed only two hits and struck out three batters. He walked no one and most of the contact against him was weak, which is definitely Nova's specialty.

Mariano Rivera followed in relief, and had a very Mariano Rivera-like inning. He induced three ground balls, struck out one, and broke three bats. In other words, just Mo being Mo. Bill Hall made Rivera work a bit harder than he should have had to with a throwing error that extended the inning, but he only needed 13 pitches to complete his scoreless outing. Boone Logan contributed an uneventful scoreless inning of his own with one strike out.

David Phelps impressed once again in 2.2 innings of work. He struck out five batters and allowed only two hits. Unfortunately, one of those hits by Pedro Ciriaco was botched badly by Zoilo Almonte in the outfield and again by David Adams on the throw to the plate, allowing the only run of the game to score. Clay Rapada, LOOGY Extraordinaire, recorded the last out of the game for the Yankees.

The offense was almost non-existant the entire game. Russell Martin, Andruw Jones, and Corban Joseph all reached base on singles, and Alex Rodriguez continued his strong offensive Spring with a walk and a single of his own. He was the only Yankee to get on base more than once in the game.

In other news, Eduardo Nunez was supposed to start tonight's game for the first time since being hit by a pitch on March 5th, but was scratched due to discomfort during batting practice. He'll try to give it a go again in a few days. For those who are sick of so many mops ruining your enjoyment of the good game of baseball, I have good news for you. Joe Girardi said cuts are likely to begin this weekend. Goodbye, Adam Miller. We will not miss you.

Tomorrow, the Yankees travel to Dunedin to take on the Toronto Blue Jays at 1:05 p.m. Freddy Garcia will start for New York while Henderson Alvarez gets the start for Toronto. Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sanchez, D.J. Mitchell and Manny Banuelos are all expected to play at some point in said game.