Yankees 4, Phillies 3: Miguel Andujar walks it off

Call spring training games meaningless, but there is no reason all these games can’t be televised in this day and age. There was no video feed for tonight’s game, so it’s pretty difficult to evaluate what happened. It wasn’t the best game overall, but the Yankees won and Miguel Andujar ended it with a walk-off home run. You may have been free to do other things with your time, but I listened and waited. Thankfully, things got more exciting late in the game.

It is hard to figure out who really had a good game when you can’t see the action. You can’t see who was swinging well and who was hitting their spots. There’s little indication how far someone hit the ball or how hard someone was getting hit. Some good things did happen tonight, obviously. Andujar finished the night with two hits and two RBI, and Brandon Drury had a triple and a walk.

The only pitching performance that really mattered was Sonny Gray’s. He struck out two but also allowed two hits in two innings. Most importantly, he made it through his appearance in one piece.

Chance Adams, meanwhile, didn’t look too hot in the third inning. He walked a batter, who then managed to steal off him and advance to third before coming around to score on a fly ball. He then allowed another hit and walk before everything was said and done.

Ben Heller had his own difficult inning in the fifth when he allowed two walks and a single to load the bases. He then hit the next batter to allow another run to score. I guess the plus side of his performance is that he struck out the side, but that didn’t seem to do him much good in the end.

The Yankees finally got on the board in the bottom of the inning. Brandon Drury walked and Billy McKinney reached on an error. Tyler Wade then singled in their first run of the night. Two young Yankees managed to strike in the seventh inning when Drury tripled and Andujar brought him home with a double. They took the lead in the next inning when Erik Kratz and Tyler Austin walked, and then Jorge Saez knocked in a run.

This is where we lose the ability to analyze the events on the field. Austin decided to run home with Kratz and was nailed at the plate, by what the announcer referred to as 10 feet. According to the commentary, there seemed to be some confusion over whether Austin blew through the stop sign or if third base coach Phil Nevin actually sent him. We have experienced more than enough bad sends in the last few years, we do not need another guy out there with no idea what he’s doing. Hopefully this won’t be a sign of things to come.

Despite taking the lead, Cody Carroll coughed it right back up by allowing a home run in the bottom of the ninth. The Yankees went into the bottom of the inning with a tie score and no apparent interest in continuing the game into extra innings. While this might ultimately be meaningless, it’s still exciting when a top prospect leaps into action. Andujar managed a game-winning home run to give the Yankees a win. It wasn’t much of a night, but it ended on a positive note.