Today, the New York Yankees traveled just a mile from Steinbrenner Field to the Philadelphia Phillies’ home at BayCare Park in Clearwater, Florida. It was the first meeting of the teams early in this spring training. Former Yankee manager Joe Girardi leads the Phillies. The Yankees were led today by Carlos Mendoza while manager Aaron Boone recovers from pacemaker surgery.
In the game, Gio Urshela made his first appearance in a game since rehabbing from a bone spur in his throwing elbow. Urshela had the surgery in December and said he feels fine now. In another debut, Deivi Garcia made his first pitching start of spring training. He faced the Phillies Matt Moore, a lefty that played in Japan last season. The game was played under bright sunny skies with a game time temp of 66 with a stiff NW breeze.
To put it simply in the game the New York Yankee hitters couldn’t hit Philly pitchers and the Yankees’ pitchers couldn’t pitch. Unfortunately it was the Yankees first 9 inning game of spring training.
Mike Tauchman led off for the Yankees against Matt Moore in the first. He struck out followed by Gio Urshela first at bat coming back for elbow surgery. Urshela flew out and Luke Voit popped out to second baseman Nick Maton. Moore made quick work of the Yankees in the frame. At the bottom the young Deivi Garcia took the mound. Deivi is just one of the pitchers that will be fighting for the fifth spot in the rotation at the start of the regular season. Garcia used three different pitches to get Adam Haseley to ground out to Urshela at third. Hoskins struck out. Then Scott Kingery hit a line drive homer to left off of Garcia. Phillies 1 Yankees 0.
Moore was back on the mound for the second, facing Clint Frazier who struck out. Miguel Andujar flew out, and Kyle Higashioka who is catching today walked on six pitches. Tyler Wade doubled, but “Higgy” was called out as he tried to reach home plate. Deivi Garcia with 15 pitches (12 strikes) was back on the mound in the bottom of the frame. Garcia gave up another homer, this one to Odubel Herrera. Phillies 2 Yankees 0.
Vince Velasquez replaced Moore in the second inning. Brito struck out. Estrada grounded out bringing us back to the top of the lineup. Tauchman grounded out to first. Wojciechowski took over for Garcia. He put down the side in one-two-three fashion. Velasquez in his second inning of work in the fourth and he put down the Yankees again.
“Wojo” was back in the bottom of the frame. Kingery reached on a Tauchman error. Bohm walked, Herrera singled giving Wojo a big mess to clean up with no outs on the board. Chatham singled driving in Kingery. Still no outs. He finally got an out by striking out Jeff Mathis. Nick Maton doubled and cleared the bases. Phillies 6 Yankees 0. Bench Coach Medoza took Wojciechowski out of the game. With one out Albert Abreu took over. The Yankees went from bad to worse. He gave up a double to Luke Williams driving Maton home for another Phillie’s run.
He then threw a wild pitch moving William to third. Haseley walked. Hoskins singled driving in Williams. Kingery struck out for the second out of the half. Bohm homered driving in three more runs. Herrera popped out ending the complete collapse of the Yankees pitching. The two Yankee pitchers gave up nine runs in the frame.
The New York Yankees remained scoreless in the top of the fifth. Next up for the Yankees was Lucas Luetge. Mathis singled and was replaced by pinch runner Luis Garcia. But, Luetge managed to get out of the inning without allowing another Philly run. In the top of the sixth Ryan LaMarre managed to get the Yankees second hit of the game, a line drive single to center. But the Yankees failed to score a run.
Reggie McClain pitched the top of the sixth for the Yankees, and immediately gave up a homer to Mickey Moniak to far right. He got out of the inning only giving up the one run. The Yankees faced Philly pitcher Ramon Rosso. The Yankees Josh Breaux singled, Brantly walked, but again the Yankees failed to score. Nestor Cortes Jr. took to the mound for the Yankees. Garcia walked and Williams homered. Mickey Moniak homered. Phillies 15 Yankees 0.
Phillies pitching again shut down the New York Yankees in the top of the eighth. Ryan LaMarre was hit by a pitch but Alvarez with two outs failed to drive him in. Yoendrys Gomez pitched the bottom of the eighth for the Yankees. He did his job and prevented the Phillies from scoring another run. With last licks on the line, the Yankees hoped to avoid the shutout in the top of the ninth inning, but the game was called after the eighth.
The final score was the Philadelphia Phillies 15 and the Yankees Zero. The losing pitcher was Deivi Garcia and the winner was Moore. The Yankees only mustarded up three hits in the game.