New York Yankees Recap: Power Bullpen Struggles in Spring Debut

Thursday afternoon the New York Yankees split into two squads. One team stayed at George M. Steinbrenner Field to take on the defending American League East Champion Toronto Blue Jays while the other traveled about an hour south to Sarasota, Florida to take on the Baltimore Orioles.

At GMS Field, the Yankees started ‘Nasty’ Nathan Eovaldi and lineup that included:

Pete Kozma, 3B

Carlos Beltran, RF

Alex Rodriguez, DH

Mark Teixeira, 1B

Brian McCann, C

Chris Denorfia, LF

Jonathan Diaz, 2B

Tyler Wade, SS

Dustin Fowler, CF

The Blue Jays handed the ball off to Lakeland, Florida native Drew Hutchinson and started nearly their entire opening day lineup, including reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Troy Tulowitzki just to name a few.

Nathan Eovaldi started things off for the Yankees by pitching two perfect innings and cruising through the first six Toronto batters.

Following Eovaldi, skipper Joe Girardi thought it would be the perfect time to debut his bullpen power trio, and unfortunately their performance was less than stellar.

Andrew Miller opened up the third by getting former Yankee Russell Martin to ground out to second, but he quickly loaded the bases by allowing three consecutive singles to Darrell Ceciliani, Ryan Goins and Kevin Pillar. Up next was Josh Donaldson, who lined a two-RBI single to left field, putting the Jays up 2-0.

Miller bounced back to get Jose Bautista and Troy Tulowitzki to strike out swinging to end the top half of the third.

The Yankees tied things up in the bottom half of the frame thanks to a pair of RBI singles from veterans Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez and they would eventually take the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run homer off the bat of Jonathan Diaz, but the lead wouldn’t last long.

Dellin Betances managed to work a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth, including a strikeout to Justin Smoak, and in the fifth inning Aroldis Chapman finally made his spring training debut.

Chapman struck Ceciliani out looking to start the inning, but then things got ugly. He tossed back-to-back walks to Ryan Goins and Kevin Pillar, popped Josh Donaldson up to first, walked Jose Bautista to load the bases and walked Troy Tulowitzki to drive in another Blue Jays run, effectively ending his day and an uneventful debut for the Yankees power trio

The Blue Jays tacked on five more runs in the top of the sixth after tattooing Diego Moreno, two more runs in the top of the eighth off Vinnie Pestano, and another off Tyler Webb in the top of the ninth, giving the Yankees another tally in Grapefruit League loss column.

Final score: Blue Jays 11 New York Yankees 4