Okay, so the Phillies won this one. But we still have their number in the World Series.
After long months of waiting and anticipating, Yankee baseball is finally back. The Bombers opened up their Grapefruit League schedule against the Phillies today down in Tampa, and unfortunately lost 5-4 in a rematch of the 2009 World Series.
The 2005 A.L. Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon got the start for the Yankees, and of course, being the first spring game, only pitched a couple innings. But he limited Philly to only a run on two hits. Now you can’t base too much off the first spring game, but Colon was hitting up to 93 mph, which is pretty good for the 37-year old.
Then, like every spring game, reliever after reliever after reliever came in; for both teams. Joba Chamberlain followed Colon and pitched a scoreless inning, as did David Robertson after him. Then David Phelps, Hector Noesi, Eric Wordekemper, and Luis Ayala combined to finish the game, with Wordekemper blowing the save when the Yanks had previously held a 4-3 lead.
On the offensive side, Francisco Cervelli drove in the Yankees’ first Grapefruit League run in the 2nd with an RBI double. Mark Teixeira drove in a run in the 5th with an RBI triple, and Jorge Vazquez hit a huge, two-run homer in the 7th. 18 different players came up to the plate for the Yankees, and managed to get 9 hits in total.
So, I guess it’s tough to watch the Yankees lose, but all in all it was great to see the Bombers back in action. The Yankees will now travel to Clearwater, to play, well, the Phillies, again. Expect more of the Phillies’ stars to be in the lineup, and expect less from the Yanks. These exhibitions are not your normal Yankee games. But they are Yankee games, and that’s all that matters.
