Yankees Recap: A-Rod Homers, Capuano Hurt In Loss To Red Sox

It was a day of ups and downs for the New York Yankees at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on Wednesday. In a 10-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox, the Bronx Bombers saw Alex Rodriguez hit his first home run of the spring as he continues to show good at-bats at the plate. However, New York did have an injury that could effect who starts at the back end of their rotation when the regular season begins on April 6.

Chris Capuano, who signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the Yankees this winter, injured himself trying to field first base on a groundout by Brock Holt in the first inning. General Manager Brian Cashman told Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network during the third inning that Capuano has a strain in his right quadriceps muscle. Marly Rivera of ESPN Deportes tweeted that Capuano told her that he’s going to be out for a while:

That leaves the competition open for Chase Whitley, Bryan Mitchell, Esmil Rogers, or Adam Warren to grab that fifth starter spot. Nick Rumbelow came in the game to finish this inning and struck out Allen Craig, the only batter he faced.

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The Yankees’ bats struggled early against Red Sox starter Joe Kelly. The former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher struck out four of the first six batters, including three straight against Brett Gardner, Carlos Beltran, and Brian McCann.

After Dellin Betances threw a scoreless second inning, which included two strikeouts (both on curveballs), Andrew Miller would pitch the third and got hit hard. On the first pitch of the inning, first baseman Travis Shaw hit a home run to right field to get Boston on the board. Miller would give up two hits and walk one in one inning of work to go with the homer.

New York would respond in the bottom of the inning with two runs of their own. Jose Pirela led off the inning with a double to left field and would score three batters later on a RBI single to right by Jacoby Ellsbury. After a walk by Gardner, Beltran would single to right and score Ellsbury to give New York the lead.

One of the candidates for the fifth spot, Bryan Mitchell, got a chance to pitch today, but his outing did not go well to say the least. In two innings, Mitchell gave up four runs on seven hits, struck out two and walked one. After an infield single by Garin Cecchini tied the game in the fourth, Shaw would continue to hurt the Yankees with a two-run double to center to make it 4-2 Boston. Jeff Bianchi would single to left to extend the lead to 5-2.

In the bottom of the fourth, Alex Rodriguez would leadoff the inning with a deep home run to left field on a 3-1 pitch from Brandon Workman that was thrown at 89 miles per hour. It was A-Rod’s first homer of the spring and cut the lead to 5-3.

Even with A-Rod’s homer, the star of the day on offense was Pirela. Pirela is now 8-for-15 this spring after going 2-for-2 on the day, which included a single in the bottom of the fourth.

Boston would add two more runs against Yankees’ reliever Tyler Webb in the seventh inning on a two-run double to left field by Cecchini, who had three RBI’s on the day.

New York would add a run back in the bottom of the inning when Jonathan Galvez hit a ground ball to third that was misplayed by Cecchini that scored Mason Williams to make it 7-4, but it wasn’t enough. Boston would add three more runs in the top of the eighth against Chris Martin with a two-run homer by Luke Montz and a fielder’s choice by Manuel Margot to increase the score to 10-4.

Even in a loss, New York’s prospects continued to shine. Outfielder Slade Heathcott hit a two-out, two-run homer to right field on a knuckleball by Steven Wright to close out the scoring.

The Yankees will be back in action tomorrow night at 7:05 PM ET against the Atlanta Braves at Steinbrenner Field. You can watch the game on the YES Network. Masahiro Tanaka will make his spring debut for New York against one of Atlanta’s offseason acquisitions, Shelby Miller.

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