The New York Yankees faced off against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first game of spring training on Saturday afternoon. The anticipation for baseball leading up to this contest was significant, but the Yankees dropped their first game 6-4, with the Blue Jays taking advantage of Yankee pitching throughout.
Bad News:
Unfortunately, starter Michael King, who the Yankees have high expectations for, allowed three hits and three earned runs in just 2.0 innings. Of course, the sample size is small, and King has plenty of time to fix his problems, but not exactly taking the developmental leaps expected of him.
At 25 years old, King pitched 26.2 innings last year, earning a 7.76 ERA. A full off-season of work and preparation didn’t seem to translate in his first opportunity. He will gain another opportunity to showcase his abilities, but he wasn’t the only pitcher that struggled. Asher Wojciechowski replaced King in the third inning, giving up three hits and one run, but struck out two batters in the process. Both he and Kyle Barraclough allowed runs in their 1.0 inning samples.
Offensively, the Yankees experienced a spark in the fourth and fifth innings, led by two home runs, courtesy of Rob Brantley and Mike Tauchman. While the game ended in a loss for the Yankees, their primary players saw a bit of action in the beginning, with DJ LeMahieu recording the first of the game on a line drive and Luke Voit also getting on base.
Good News:
The Yankees are preparing to take on the Detroit Tigers on Monday at 2 PM. Expect this next month to be extremely busy, with games nearly every day leading up to the start of the regular season. If you are a baseball fan, you should be extremely excited for the days ahead, with plenty to watch as the Yankees look to make a World Series appearance for the first time in over a decade.
Hopefully, all of the risky moves GM Brian Cashman me this off-season will pay off in dividends.