Yankees Bombs Away: Three Home Runs Beat Phillies

The Yankees (19-7) traveled to Clearwater today to beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a spring contest that featured three home runs by the Bronx Bombers and another stellar starting pitching performance.

The Yankees, at this point, have to wish they could close their eyes and will the clock forward two weeks into the regular season when they would be sitting where they are now with the best preseason record in all of baseball.

On a day that followed a night game loss to the Boston Red Sox and Chris Sale when they could only manage four hits, the team bounced back today to win their 19th game of the preseason and 10th on the road.

Greg Bird and a rejuvenated Chase Headley supplied the power, and Masahiro Tanaka provided the pitching leading the Yankees to a 7-3 decision over the hapless Phillies, who continue to suffer from their geographical proximity to Tampa.

Bird, whose two home runs today give him 6 for the season, accounted for five of the Yankees seven runs. For those who like to project these things out, Bird would have 37 home runs by season’s end at this pace.

He’s a compelling story for the team, though, because he had a very undistinguished experience in the Arizona Fall League. His performance raised concern among Yankees brass to the point where they went out and signed Chris Carter, a decision that now looms large when the team cuts down to the 25 players heading North.

For the record, Bird is now hitting .439 for the spring with an on-base percentage of a gazillion.

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The much maligned Headley also contributed a two-out home run in the sixth inning. Of late, Headley appears to be on the rebound and has raised his batting average to a respectable, if not remarkable, .263 for the spring.

And then there’s Tanaka, who still hasn’t given up a run this spring. Today, he upped his work count to face 21 batters in 5 1/3 innings while giving up only three hits. At the same time, Tanaka is probably picking his brain in his hotel room about now trying to figure out how he could have surrendered those three hits, but such is the nature of a real Cy Young contender.

In Other Yankees News…….

Chris Carter went 0-3 with three strikeouts that lowered his spring average to .108, ringing the bell once again for the team to dump this guy. And if they need the money, Yankees fans will take up a collection to pay his salary.

Rob Refsnyder also went 0-3, continuing to cement the possibility that he will not make the team when it moves North for the season. His batting average of .194 is supported by an OBP of .310 meaning that if he could only get a few hits, he would be back in the running as a utility player.

Billy McKinney went 1-3 maintaining his illustrious spring numbers that now stand at .435 BA, .536 OBP, and a  .997 slugging percentage.

There were no further cuts announced following the game.

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The Yankees are showing their fans a lot during this Preseason. But there's more to come and the opportunity to play baseball is a real possibility.

Tomorrow, the Yankees play another away game against the Tampa Bay Rays in an afternoon contest scheduled to start at 1:05 p.m. EST. The game will again be televised by ESPN.