Yankees suffer another injury as spring winning streak is snapped

After a winning week of spring training games, the Yankees finally saw their winning streak snapped. They headed to West Palm Beach today with a six-game streak in tow, but fell to the Astros by a score of 2-1. In fairness, the Yankees rested most of their regulars, while the Astros trotted out a lineup of stars, fronted by Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and George Springer.

You can check out the full box score here. On to our three main takeaways:

1. Gary Sanchez continues to round into shape just in time. He started off spring slowly, but he lined a couple of doubles yesterday, and laced another one in his first at-bat against starter Wade Miley to give the Yankees an early 1-0 lead. The prospect of a healthy and productive Sanchez is an exciting one, and with any luck, he’ll keep raking as the games begin to matter.
2. The Yankees experimented with an opener again, and it went a little better than it did yesterday, when Chad Green allowed a run to start the game. Today, Jonathan Holder started and tossed a pair of scoreless innings. If the Yankees are to earnestly utilize the opener strategy during the regular season, it makes sense to give players that would likely play that role, like Green and Holder, opportunities to get used to it during spring.
3. Luke Voit and Greg Bird each reached base twice, but the odds of both making the Opening Day roster increased for a different reason; Tyler Wade went down with tightness in his hips. If Wade is out, it’s easier to envision the Yankees keeping both of their raking first baseman on the roster. Hopefully Wade’s ailment isn’t too serious, and he indicated after the game that he’ll try to get back quickly for the start of the season. Even so, add another banged-up player to the Yankees’ spring tally.

Highlight of the Game

The Yankees will be right back at it tomorrow as they travel to take on the Cardinals. Domingo German gets the ball for that one, which kicks off at 1:05 EST.