Yankees lose to Tigers but young hurlers continue to impress

By Gary W. Marchese Jr.

Lakeland, FL (Feb 28) – The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers this afternoon by the score of 6-2. C.C. Sabathia made his first start and threw two scoreless innings, for him it does not matter what the line score is; he is just trying to get ready for the season. He said his knees were not an issue at all and he felt good out there.

Manny Banuelos the young lefty threw a 1-2-3 inning continuing the run of impressive young pitching so far this spring the Yankees are displaying. They either are going to have players that help the team in the future or another team is going to like what they see and they have great trade assets. Banuelos is tiny but his delivery is polished and he throws hard and it helps that he is lefty.

Pedro Feliciano got into a game for the first time this spring throwing a scoreless inning giving up two hits and striking out one. Mark Prior threw a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout, Daniel Turpin gave up two hits, two runs, and three walks in one inning of work and Robert Fish gave up three hits and two runs in one inning of work.

D.J. Mitchell is a young pitcher that struggled with his line being three runs and two hits given up and there was a strikeout. The thing about these exhibition games are that you can look at wins and losses but a lot of times players that are blowing the games are not going to be anywhere near the Yankees when the season starts. The players that will be on the team this year played well today. Spring training is about getting your work in and not being injured. There are tryouts though of course that is playing for a job if not with the Yankees then to get noticed by another team.

Derek Jeter did get his first hit of the spring, he is struggling with his new swing and asked Kevin Long to stay behind in Tampa Tuesday and work in the cage with him. He said it is all about timing and he is thinking too much about the mechanics right now because he has had the stride for so long that it is difficult to change.

Mark Teixeira had two hits and an RBI, Alex Rodriguez had a hit, and Jorge Vazquez continued his hot spring with two more hits. He did not hit a homerun but not a pitcher has stuck him out yet. Andrew Jones collected a hit and an RBI, Francisco Cervelli who is in great shape had two more hits as the battle for backup catcher heats up. Jordann Parazz and Melky Mesa each had a hit.

The Yankees spring record fell to 1-2 and they will head to Bradenton on Tuesday to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Phil Hughes will make his first start of the spring. Russell Martin got into the game at DH today and felt good afterwards; he said his knee feels better each day. He will catch by the end of the week. Joe Girardi said this about Banuelos today, “He looked really good, three pitches he threw for strikes. Couple of strikeouts on a couple of curveballs, ability to get back in the count with his changeup. Throwing hard, I mean he looked really good.”

Posted by gmarchesej on March 1, 2011. Filed under MLB News,News and Sports with Gary W. Marchese Jr.,Sports,US Sports,Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.