The offense never materialized while one of their newest relievers struggled in his first spring outing.
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The Yankees brought back much of the same squad that beat the Rays in the spring opener, but they couldn’t find the same success against a legitimate big league starter. This meant that the game zipped along at a rapid clip, wrapping up in just over two hours as the Tigers downed the Yankees, 4-0.
Career minor leaguer Sean Boyle pitched the first three innings, and he showed admirable stick-to-it-ive-ness to escape jams in the second and third. He faced two men on in each situation but escaped each inning unscathed.
The Tigers looked like they would strike first, putting a pair on with one out on a Jace Jung leadoff double and Trey Sweeney walk. However, Boyle got Dillon Dingler to ground into the inning-ending double play. The Yankees’ only baserunners through the first three innings came via a pair of line drive singles to right, first by Cody Bellinger in the first followed by J.C. Escarra in the second.
Anthony Volpe has looked rusty at shortstop on a few occasions through the first three exhibition games. Duke Ellis had Jung dead to rights at second as he tried to stretch the leadoff double, but the accurate one-hop throw careened off Volpe’s glove into the outfield. Then in the third, he booted a routine groundball from Jahmai Jones.
He was not the only Yankee to struggle in the field. Jasson Domínguez lost a Colt Keith flyball in the sun in the third, but some bizarre base running by the Tigers resulted in Jones getting thrown out at the plate by five steps. That changed the momentum of the outing, and Boyle struck out Wenceel Pérez to strand a pair and keep the game scoreless. Domínguez wasn’t so fortunate in the fourth, taking a strange route to an Andy Ibañez flyball that found the grass and allowed Jung to score the game’s opening run following the latter’s leadoff double. Domínguez made several high-profile errors in left toward the end of last season, and his progress transitioning to the position from his more natural center field will be something to monitor closely this spring.
It was new reliever Fernando Cruz pitching in that fourth inning and he was punished for some suspect fastball command. Both doubles by Jung and Ibañez were on four-seamers over the heart of the plate as was a two-run no-doubter by Dingler to make it 3-0 Tigers.
Cam Schlittler — the Yankees’ 7th-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft — has been one of the standout relievers to emerge through the early days of spring, and he faced quite a baptism by fire in the fifth. The Tigers had men on second and third with one out following a Matt Vierling leadoff walk and Keith single. However, Oswald Peraza made an impressive diving stop at third on a sharply-struck grounder, and Schlittler then struck out Thayron Liranzo to strand the pair in scoring position and keep the score 3-0. He’d then work a 1-2-3 sixth to complete his outing.
Just as with the first two games of spring, the Yankees subbed out all of their starters by the sixth. Unfortunately, the minor leaguers who replaced them couldn’t improve upon the starters’ fortunes, managing just two singles and a walk across the last four innings. The Tigers collected a final run on a pair of doubles in the ninth to bring us to our final score, 4-0.
The Yankees travel to Fort Myers to take on the Red Sox tomorrow afternoon. We get our first look at Carlos Carrasco in pinstripes as he faces Tanner Houck. First pitch has been postponed from 1:05 to 4:05pm ET in anticipation of inclement weather.