While a shortstop in the twilight of his career struggled Thursday, another at the beginning of his career flashed some talent in a big way.
The Yankee Captain's final spring training isn't treating him well.
Derek Jeter is now hitting .167/.231/.208 after his latest 0-fer in the Yankees' 6-0 split-squad win over the Orioles on Thursday. Jeter is hitless in his last 10 plate appearances and has struck out four times during that span, but manager Joe Girardi told MLB.com's Paul Hagen that he isn't worried about the future Hall of Famer's slow start:
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"Timing's messed up. I've seen him pull some balls, and that's kind of unusual. Older guys you don't worry so much about early on in Spring Training. I can remember Lou Piniella told me not to worry about Raul Ibanez, that I'd see it in the last week and he'd start to hit. And he was right. Sometimes it just takes those guys a little longer to get going."
Jeter has never been as good in spring as he has been in the regular season. His career Grapefruit League line .289/.342/.390, which falls short of his lifetime regular season numbers by quite a bit. Still, it has to be a bit concerning to see Jeter look as lost at the plate as he has, especially given the fact that he's coming off of a season filled with circumstances he has not yet faced in his illustrious career.
Of course, some good news also came out of the Yankees' win. Michael Pineda had another strong start, tossing 2⅔ scoreless innings in which he struck out five batters and walked only one. Pineda has struck out nine and walked one while allowing four hits in 4⅔ scoreless innings thus far.
Correa goes deep twice
Astros top prospect Carlos Correa homered twice and showed some flash on defense in Houston's 7-5 win over the Blue Jays.
The 19-year-old shortstop threw out Jose Bautista at the plate in the first inning and made a few rangy plays in the field, but it was his pair of home runs that were most impressive. Correa broke a 2-for-15 slump with the two dingers, which plated three of the team's seven runs.
Houston starter Dallas Keuchel allowed six hits in four scoreless innings. He struck out a pair of batters and did not issue a walk.
Trout, Angels keep scoring runs
After scoring a combined 24 runs in their two split-squad contests on Wednesday, the Angels put another eight on the board against the White Sox on Thursday en route to an 8-6 victory.
Mike Trout had three hits, including a triple, and is now 12-for-27 with four extra-base hits and seven runs scored this spring. Howie Kendrick added a pair of hits to raise his Cactus League batting average to .435. The Angels scored seven of their eight runs off of White Sox starter Jose Quintana, who also allowed six hits and three walks in three innings of work.
Other scores
Phillies 6, Yankees (ss) 2
Mariners 6, Diamondbacks 3