Yankees 6, Orioles 0
Michael Pineda made his first start since tearing his labrum two seasons ago and managed to follow up on his impressive spring training debut on Friday with 2.2 scoreless innings against the Orioles at Steinbrenner Field. Pineda allowed three hits and a walk while striking out five batters on 48 pitches, 27 of which were strikes. His fastball velocity was mainly in the 90-92 mph range. Joe Girardi said the team's gun had Pineda up to 93 mph. David Robertson came on in relief of Pineda in the third inning and got the only batter he faced in Henry Urrutia to strike out swinging. Matt Thornton followed Robertson out of the bullpen and faced only two batters, one of which reached base on a single.
The rest of the bullpen brigade was composed of Bruce Billings who worked 2.2 innings while striking out two, Chris Leroux who pitched two clean innings to continue his impressive spring performance, and Cesar Cabral who struck out two and allowed a walk and a ground rule double. The Orioles managed to reach base for the first time all game with two outs in the ninth inning.
Scoring got started early for the Yankees, who got themselves on the board in the first inning when Brett Gardner came around to score on a Carlos Beltran RBI single. Gardner drove in Zoilo Almonte with back-to-back doubles in the second inning before coming around to score himself when Bud Norris failed to field a Derek Jeter comebacker cleanly and threw it into left field. Alfonso Soriano put the Yankees up 4-0 with his fifth inning RBI single that drove in Brian McCann who reached base on a walk. The rest of the game's scoring came when Zelous Wheeler walked and came around to score on an Adonis Garcia RBI single in the eighth inning. Corban Joseph walked and scored on a double play. Russ Canzler had a day to forget, committing an error and striking out three times. He did make an impressive grab by the stands at first base to somewhat mitigate an otherwise disappointing day.
Yankees 2, Phillies 6
The away Yankees did not fare as well as their counterparts, falling 6-2 to the Phillies in Clearwater. Ivan Nova gave up nine hits and three runs in five innings of work, but he allowed no walks and struck out six batters across that span. Shane Greene and Bryan Mitchell each tossed a scoreless inning to give the offense time to catch up, but Preston Claiborne allowed four hits and three runs in 0.2 innings to put the game solidly out of reach. Mark Montgomery got the final out for New York.
Roberto Hernandez kept the offense quiet for nearly all of his five innings of work. The traveling split squad only managed four hits in the game, one of which was a home run by Jacoby Ellsbury. Kelly Johnson, Francisco Cervelli, and Scott Sizemore were the only other Yankees to pick up hits in the game. Cervelli continued to impress by driving in the only other run and making a couple of impressive defensive plays. He may yet prove himself too valuable to be traded if the Yankees feel that they are better on hanging onto him as their backup for the season. Mark Teixeira reached base on a walk, the only one on the Yankees' side in the game.
David Phelps gets the start tomorrow against the Twins at Steinbrenner Field at 1:05 pm. The game will be televised on MLB.tv