CC was good and the season is a little closer. Hooray!
CC Sabathia took the mound for the Yankees and continued his recent success with another strong start. Sabathia threw four shutout innings, allowing just three hits as the Yankees beat the Pirates 4-3.
The Yankees got on the board early with a pair of runs in the top of the first. Ichiro Suzuki led off the game with a single. He then moved to third when Eduardo Nunez singled. A Mark Teixeira grounder would be the first out of the inning, but it allowed Ichiro to score the game's first run. After Brian McCann flied out, Zoilo Almonte singled. That scored Nunez and Almonte was able to move to second on the throw home. Yangervis Solarte nearly added another run with a deep shot to center. However, Andrew McCutchen was able to track it down for the third out.
The Yankees were able to pick up a couple hits in the second and third innings, but did so without pushing a run across. However, in the fourth, they did add to their lead. Adonis Garcia hit a two-out double and came around to score when Ichiro singled. Ichiro was able to move up a base on a wild pitch and he too scored when Nunez picked up another single. After four innings, the Yankees led 4-0.
Sabathia's day was over after four innings. CC allowed no runs on three hits in his four innings. He was relieved by Dellin Betances who allowed a lead-off double, but got out of the inning and stranded the runner at third. Next in was Vidal Nuno who struck out two in his one inning of work. Adam Warren allowed two hits in the seventh inning (one of which was hit to Nunez, so) but stranded both of them.
David Phelps was the next Yankee pitcher to take the mound and he would be the first to get into any real trouble. Jarek Cunningham led off the inning with a single. Andy Vazquez then doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. A walk to Travis Snider loaded the bases. Phelps then got Drew Maggi to ground into a double play. A run did score on the play, but Phelps was almost out of it. However, Phelps would not be able to finish off the inning, as he then allowed a triple to Gift Ngoepe. That hit chased Phelps from the game and made the score 4-2. Cesar Cabral came in and got Mel Rojas to ground out to end the inning.
Cabral came back out for the ninth and despite allowing a one-out single, he was able to finish off the game without too much trouble. In all, the Yankees used six pitchers, and all but one looked pretty good. The offense got some early runs and the pitching took it from there, as the Yankees came away with a 4-2 win.
The Yankees will take on the Marlins tomorrow night at 7 eastern. Hiroki Kuroda will make his final start of the spring.