The Yankees and Orioles played to a tie tonight. Rashad Crawford had the game-tying two-run single in the ninth. James Paxton started and allowed a solo homer in two innings plus one batter. Chad Green struck out three of the four batters he faced and Tommy Kahnle struck out all three men he faced. I wonder what his velocity was like. DJ LeMahieu started at third base and, according to Bryan Hoch, he made a nice play coming on a weakly hit grounder. Consider that practice for CC Sabathia starts.
Gary Sanchez made his spring debut and caught four innings. He went 0-for-2 at the plate and had a hit taken away on a diving catch by the center fielder, says Hoch. Gary told Lindsey Adler he’ll play again Sunday. Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner, Gleyber Torres, Luke Voit, and DJ LeMahieu went a combined 0-for-15. Ouch. The Aarons each drew a walk. Giancarlo Stanton singled and walked, and Clint Frazier doubled and walked. Here is the box score and here are the day’s notes from Tampa:
- As expected, CC Sabathia threw his first bullpen session of the spring today. Here’s some video. “Conditioning-wise, knee-wise, everything felt great. I have plenty of time (to get ready for the regular season). Plus, I’m suspended, so I got an extra week,” he said. Sabathia will throw his next bullpen session Sunday. [Pete Caldera, Lindsey Adler]
- There have been conflicting reports about the upcoming rotation the last few days, so let’s clear things up: Luis Cessa is starting tomorrow, Masahiro Tanaka and Domingo German are starting Sunday’s split squad games, and Luis Severino is expected to make his spring debut Tuesday after the off-day Monday. That has always been the schedule. Some of the reporters in Tampa tweeted out the wrong days though, creating some confusion. It happens. [Bryan Hoch, George King]
- Jacoby Ellsbury (hip surgery) is running on flat ground and the Yankees will soon get together to map out a plan for him. “His work’s going well, but we’ll probably in the next week or two get to the point where we have to make a decision to continue to get there, or if we deem he’s ready for baseball activities, then he’ll get going out here,” said Aaron Boone. [Brendan Kuty]
- For the first time this spring, Boone indicated there is a scenario in which both Luke Voit and Greg Bird are on the Opening Day roster. “(We are) a long way from that,” Boone cautioned, referring to the roster decision. Voit and Bird have both started the spring very well. There are still more than three weeks to go until Opening Day though. [Coley Harvey]
- And finally, intrasquad games have started at the minor league complex across the street. Here’s video of first base prospect Steven Sensley hitting a dinger.
The Grapefruit League season continues tomorrow afternoon with a road game against the Pirates. Cessa is starting and Miguel Andujar, Greg Bird, Thairo Estrada, Danny Farquhar, Estevan Florial, Clint Frazier, Joe Harvey, Austin Romine, Stephen Tarpley, and Troy Tulowitzki will all make the trip, so says Brendan Kuty. It’ll be Farquhar’s spring debut and his first game action since suffering a life-threatening brain hemorrhage last April. Tomorrow’s game will not be televised. Sunday’s games will though.