Yankees youngsters showcase power in 6-4 win over Phillies

The Yankees slugged a total of five home runs en route to their sixth win of the spring, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 6-4 on Thursday.

Miguel Andujar continues to impress, as he belted two more home runs to open the scoring for the Yankees on Thursday afternoon. He now leads the Grapefruit League with four homers and is looking more and more MLB-ready each game.

On the very first pitch of the second inning, Andujar took a vicious hack on a ball left up in the zone and sent it high over the left-center field fence to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

With two outs in the top of the third, Andy took advantage of another first pitch meatball and sent it over the fence to give the Yanks a 2-0 lead.

While Andujar shined at the plate, C.C. Sabathia pitched two no-hit innings in his Spring Training debut. He was credited with the win, fanning three of the seven batters he faced.

Domingo German followed Sabathia and pitched pretty well himself. Aside from surrendering a solo home run in the fourth inning, German struck out three and walked no one through three innings of work.

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Brandon Drury answered Andujar’s bombs with one of his own, belting a solo home run in the top of the fifth inning to stretch the lead to 3-1.

With Andujar’s and Drury’s performances, they both seem to be the front-runners to get starting jobs at this point. There is Tyler Wade, however, who has performed well too. It’s nice to see that Aaron Boone has good problems like these instead of having to deal with underperforming players.

Tyler Austin added to the home run count with another solo shot in the sixth inning, making it a 4-1 Yankees’ lead. Finally, Billy McKinney belted a solo homer in the top of the seventh, making it a 6-2 game.

This abundance of home runs and power display from the Yanks is only a preview of what we get to watch the whole year. Even better, it was all the youngsters that hit these home runs. It just goes to show how much muscle the Yanks have throughout every level of the farm system.

Giovanny Gallegos entered in the game in the bottom of the eighth with a 6-2 lead. The 26-year-old struggled, as he surrendered a single and walked the next two batters to load the bases. With no men out, Matt McBride somehow got on top of a ball at his eyes and laced a double to score two runs.

With runners on second and third with no one out, Ben Heller replaced Gallegos and escaped without allowing another runner to cross the plate. Heller induced a pop out, strikeout and fly out to the next three batters to stop the bleeding. With a potential spot in the bullpen up for grabs, Heller showed excellent poise being able to work out of a high leverage situation like that.

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Heller went on to pitch a perfect ninth inning and seal the win for the Yankees.

Next up, the Yanks travel back to Steinbrenner Field to take on the Braves. Masahiro Tanaka gets the ball in his Spring Training debut.