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Yankees Recap: Alex Rodriguez Singles In Spring Home Opener

By Ricky Keeler

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It was a day of debuts at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida as the New York Yankees began their home Spring Training schedule against the Philadelphia Phillies. After a 5-5 tie on Tuesday, the Yankees saw the debuts of Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Miller in a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia. While Eovaldi and Miller had solid performances, most of the talk around New York was about Alex Rodriguez’s return to the lineup.

Before we get to how A-Rod did, let’s talk about Eovaldi. He threw the first two innings of the game and put up good numbers. He faced nine batters, gave up one run on two hits and struck out one. That run came on a two-out RBI single by Cord Phelps to score Darin Ruf, who doubled in the second inning. Eovaldi’s fastball reached up to 98 mph, but the more impressive pitch was his split finger, which he used to strike out Phillies’ prospect Maikel Franco to begin the inning.

Andrew Miller, the Yankees’ key bullpen acquisition this winter, pitched the third inning of this game. While he did give up a leadoff single to Odubel Herrera (who had three hits and three stolen bases on the day), Miller escaped the inning without giving up a run due to two strikeouts. Despite some shaky command, his slider was key in K’s of Freddy Galvis and Domonic Brown.

Alex Rodriguez, who hit second and was the designated hitter today, went 1-for-2 with a walk and left the game for a pinch runner in the bottom of the sixth inning. Rodriguez started off his day in the first inning when he swung and missed at two 91 mph pitches from Phillies’ starter Kevin Slowey. On the third pitch, Rodriguez hit a 89 mph pitch to left field for a base hit.

In the third inning, A-Rod swung at the first pitch, a 96 mph fastball by Paul Clemens and grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. In Rodriguez’s last at-bat of the game in the sixth, he saw all offspeed pitches from Ethan Martin and would eventually draw a six-pitch walk to load the bases. This would set up a sacrifice fly by Gary Sanchez to score Mason Williams, who doubled to left center to begin the inning. New York had a chance for more runs, but Francisco Arcia grounded into a double play to end the threat.

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Philadelphia would score against Kyle Davies in the top of the fifth inning on a RBI single to center by Franco to make it 2-0. However, bad baserunning by Domonic Brown prevented another run from scoring. The Phillies would add one more run in the seventh inning on a RBI single by Aaron Altherr against James Pazos to extend the lead to 3-1. Wilking Rodriguez, Danny Burawa, and Tyler Webb also pitched in the game and did not give up any runs.

In terms of fielding, it was a rough day for second baseman Stephen Drew. After misplaying a groundball in the first inning, Drew nearly made a second error in the fourth inning, but Mark Teixiera made a nice play at first base to get the out. On the positive side, Cito Culver made a Derek Jeter-esque play in the 8th inning to take a base hit away from Darin Ruf.

Now, New York did attempt to rally in the ninth inning with a pair of two-out hits. After a ground-rule double by Arcia and a single by Cole Figueroa, Nick Noonan would strike out looking against Justin De Fratus to finish the game.

The Yankees will head  to Bradenton for a Thursday afternoon game at 1:05 PM ET to face the Pittsburgh Pirates. Esmil Rogers will get the start for New York against Francisco Liriano for the Pirates.

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