Yankees Pummel Astros 11-9, Offense Appears in Mid-Season Form

Today, 21-year-old Astros pitcher Jordan Lyles took on the Yankees. It did not go well.

The offense looked fantastic today; I know the Astros are projected to lose 100 games, but regardless. They notched 11 runs against some admittedly-weak pitching, including eight off of Lyles, who was considered the Astros' top prospect before 2011. The Yankees notched 11 hits against him, including homers to deep right field by Robinson Cano and Raul Ibanez, both of whom had two hits on the day. Cano's success is unsurprising, but it's good to see that Ibanez appears to be out of his slump, although he won't get to face youngsters like Lyles every day once the season starts. Curtis Granderson also had three hits in three at bats, raising his Spring Training batting average to .381. Grandy's looked great all Spring and doesn't look to have missed a beat from last season. Mark Teixeira also had a single to center and a double to the opposite field. We're all hoping that Tex can successfully revitalize the opposite-field power he always had before playing every day in front of that Yankee Stadium short porch in right field.

Dante Bichette, Jr. announced his Spring Training debut with not one, but two homers against Astros pitching. He replaced Eduardo Nunez at third base in the fifth inning, and then greeted Astros scrub Ruben Alaniz with a long home run to center. In his second at-bat, against projected setup man Brandon Lyon (who had just given up a homer to .455 hitter Jose Gil, a mystery in itself), he homered to deep left. See you in a few years, DBJ. Keep doing that.

Adam Warren did not look good in his final start of the Spring--you simply cannot be considered MLB-ready if you give up six runs on ten hits to the punchless Astros. Warren gave up homers to the corpse of Carlos Lee and Justin Ruggiano, who has only six more major-league homers than I do. Clay Rapada, who hadn't given given up a hit to a lefty all Spring, allowed a homer to lefty-swinging Brian Bogusevic (now that Cesar Cabral is injured, of course). Rapada gets a pass since it was the first mistake he's made all Spring, but I guess now Girardi can acknowledge that his second lefty isn't perfect.

The game ended during the top of the ninth due to rain. Best to get that atmospheric nonsense out of the way before it affects the regular season.