New York Yankees Recap: Sabathia Comes Back to Earth

The Yankees got shut out 3-0 by the Phillies at home, but don’t worry, I managed to find some positives to focus on.

I’m the last guy to lean on early spring training performance as an indicator of how a guy is going to fare when it’s time for teams to head North for the regular season, but I’m not going to lie and tell you it’s not still disappointing when guys struggle during the exhibitions. CC Sabathia pitched well in his spring debut against the Marlins, but didn’t have much in his start against the Phillies on Sunday.

Although he was originally scheduled to go 3 innings in this one, he labored and ended up only lasting 1.2 frames. CC’s numbers weren’t pretty, as he allowed three runs (two earned) on a walk and five hits. His biggest problem on the day was his command, and his inability to put batters away. He told Jack Curry during a break in action in the top of the sixth:

“Spring training. Trying to get work in, and it was a tough one.”

In a way, CC is right. It’s only spring training. However, if the rumor that he’s not guaranteed a rotation spot is to be believed (I’m very skeptical), he needs more good starts than bad ones.

This game was really all about the pitching for the Yankees. After Sabathia left, Dellin Betances came in for a quick strikeout to get out of the jam. Andrew Miller followed, allowing only a double in an otherwise uneventful inning.

Michael Pineda was next, and he was pretty brilliant. Big Mike gave up a hit and a walk to his first two batters, but ended up with just those two baserunners and no runs in his three nasty innings. The four strikeouts were icing on the cake.

Girardi completed the dominant reliever trilogy by pitching Aroldis Chapman in the seventh. Chapman had an error (one of five by the Yankees on the day), walked a batter and scared everyone when something he did caused Girardi and the trainer to rush out to the mound, but everyone just laughed and the big lefty stayed in to finish his inning. Solid innings by Chasen Shreve and Richard Bleier meant Yankees relievers gave up no runs on just 2 hits in 7.1 innings on the day. Not bad.

As has been the pattern so far early this spring, the Yankees offense pretty much sat out of this game. The lineup featured every assumed regular season starter except for Brett Gardner (wrist) and Alex Rodriguez, but they managed no runs on just five hits. Starlin Castro (2 singles) was the only player with multiple hits. Chase Headley, Didi Gregorius and Carlos Corporan added hits of their own, but no one was able to push a run across in the loss.

Like with the facts of life, you have to take the good and the bad from spring training games. Sabathia struggled, but it was command that let him down. Considering it was only his second start of the spring, I’m not all that concerned. Pineda and the bullpen mostly looked great. The offense failed, but it’s still early for them too.

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The Yankees just need to keep working to get ready for the start of the season. I think they’ll be fine. We’ll see how they do on Tuesday against the Red Sox.