Yankees Spring Training: Game 5

The Good:

A few guys (Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Mark Teixeira) got over the hump and got that pesky first hit of the spring out of the way. Brett Marshall was the only Yankees pitcher who managed to hold the Pirates scoreless, allowing no hits and striking out one in his 1.2 innings pitched. And on a very happy note, three Yankees dodged the injury bullet. Jeter was hit by an errant throw as he slid into second, Teix jammed his thumb attempting to lay down a tag, and Francisco Cervelli was hit on a back swing while catching. Those are exactly the kind of things you don’t want to see this early in the season, so the fact that all three guys are fine is especially great.

The Bad:

The pitching. As mentioned above, Marshall was the only one of the Yankees five pitchers to not allow a run. That’s even worse when you consider that the longest any one of those pitcher was on the mound was two full innings.

The Ugly:

Chase Whitley had the worst day of any Yankees pitcher, allowing three runs on five hits in just one inning of work. Having followed Whitley through his performances in the Arizona Fall League, he seems to be right in line with where he was a few months ago. When Whitley is good, he’s really good, basically to the point of being unhittable. But when Whitley is bad, he goes into complete melt down mode and gets knocked all over the field. But considering that Whitley was only drafted a year and a half ago, he still has plenty of time to work out the kinks. If he is able to do that, his upside should be very good.

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