The split squad Yankees beat the Tigers at home this afternoon. Brett Gardner had two homers (both against a lefty), Aaron Judge had two homers, and Gary Sanchez and Isiah Gilliam had one homer each. Gilliam’s had the most distance. It went to the opposite field side of dead center and landed at the back of the elevated concourse. Masahiro Tanaka twirled three scoreless innings, Zack Britton and Adam Ottavino each tossed a scoreless inning, and Aroldis Chapman gave up a solo homer in his inning. Here are the box score and video highlights for the home game.
Meanwhile, on the road, the other Yankees lost to the Blue Jays. Luke Voit clubbed a home run and DJ LeMahieu went 1-for-4 with a single. That’s about all there is to see offensively. Domingo German looked really good in his 2.2 scoreless innings. He struck out four. Trevor Stephan got tagged for four runs (three earned) in 1.1 innings. He has a 27.00 ERA this spring. Ouch. Here are the box score and video highlights for the road game, and here are the rest of the day’s notes from Tampa:
- Brett Gardner (home game) and Clint Frazier (road game) both exited today’s game after being hit by a pitch. They’re both okay. Gardner got hit by a curveball that spiked in front of the plate, jumped up, and hit him in the wrist. Geez, bad luck. Frazier took a fastball to the left forearm that then grazed his pinky. “I’m fine,” he said. [Lindsey Adler, Erik Boland]
- Aaron Hicks had some back stiffness following Friday night’s game, so the Yankees held him out of batting practice and today’s game. Ugh only seven more years of this!!! (I kid, I kid.) Tomorrow’s an off-day, and the Yankees expect to get Hicks back in the lineup Tuesday. [Ken Davidoff]
- Dellin Betances will make his Grapefruit League debut Tuesday. He and CC Sabathia are the only members of the projected Opening Day roster who’ve yet to appear in a game this spring. Sabathia’s being brought along slowly and Betances reported to camp a few days late after his wife gave birth to their first child. [George King]
- Busy bullpen day today. Sabathia, Luis Severino, James Paxton, Tommy Kahnle, Chad Green, and Jonathan Loaisiga all threw bullpen sessions and Domingo Acevedo was among those to throw a simulated game. This was Sabathia’s second bullpen of the spring. [Randy Miller, Pete Caldera]
Tomorrow is the Yankees’ first off-day of the Grapefruit League season and it’ll be a complete off-day. There are no scheduled workouts. The Yankees will be back at it Tuesday afternoon at home against the Braves. That’ll be Severino’s spring debut. The game will be televised live on YES and MLB.tv.