Yankees’ Game Recap: April 19th

The New York Yankees took on the Tampa Bay Rays in Sunday’s game and completed the sweep with a 5-3 win. The highlights of the game were mostly on the defensive side of the ball. Heading into the season the Yankees were being praised by analysts for their major moves made to upgrade their defense. They were supposed to compete to be one of the best defensive statistic teams.

Stephen Drew was brought in to play second base and is widely renown for his defensive prowess. He sure demonstrated today why Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi handed him the starting job at second base rather than a rookie like Rob Refsnyder. He made two diving plays and on both of them made a strong throw afterwards. Chase Headley was re-signed to be the every day third baseman because of Alex Rodriguez‘s limited mobility. Headley has been a stud at third and made big plays today as well. Lastly, John Ryan Murphy won the backup catching job in a competition with Austin Romine and he showed why when he threw out speedy Desmond Jennings.

It was nice to see the offense contributing to the starting pitcher’s cause too. The Yanks have been struggling to be consistent with scoring runs but going to Tampa may have been the vacation they needed. They combined for 11 hits and were threatening to score for the majority of the game. Garett Jones got his bat going with a 3 for 4 outing and what was more impressive was his hit to the left side of the infield to beat the shift.

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Didi Gregorius has been struggling at the plate and the Yankees knew it was going to be growing pains with the young short stop when they went out and traded for him. However, today he had a strong 2 for 4 performance. If he can continue to work with Jeff Pentland to develop his bat then there is strong hope for his future in pinstripes. Gregorius and Drew are very similar in being gurus with their gloves but slacking with their bats, maybe Pentland can work his magic to develop both into rounded players.

The bullpen held up strong after Pineda’s shaky start. He went 5.2 innings and gave up three earned runs while striking out five. However, the bullpen came in and shut the door for the remainder of the game. All together they only gave up 2 hits in their 3.1 innings of work. Chris Martin continues to be a tremendous asset to the bullpen and has made the front office’s move to trade for him look genius. Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances, and Andrew Miller all were lights out in their appearances as well. Miller closed the game for his fourth save of the season. The bullpen has been effective and they can continue to shorten the games for the struggling starters.

Next: Tanaka Dominant

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