Game 120: Yankees looking to snap skid

New York dropped the opener of the three-game weekend series, last night 5-0.

Rays starter Alex Cobb threw 7 1-3 shutout innings for the win over Brandon McCarthy. The Yankees were able to manage seven hits, but were predictably 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

The Yankees sit eight games behind Baltimore in the AL East and 4 1/2 games back of Seattle for the second Wild Card position. At 61-59, New York needs some sort of spark it if wants to get Derek Jeter to the playoffs in his final season, but that seems unlikely at this point.

 Things have gotten so bleak for the Yankees, as the Rays, who were once 18 games under .500, now sit just one game back of New York with a 61-61 mark.

Today's lineup against Tampa Bay:

LF Brett Gardner
DH Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
RF Carlos Beltran
3B Chase Headley
2B Martin Prado
C Francisco Cervelli
SS Brendan Ryan

Pitching Matchup Preview:

The Yankees send boy wonder Shane Greene to the hill to go against Tampa Bay's Drew Smyly. Greene has been of the biggest surprises in the American League this season. The 25-year-old has a 3-1 record this season to go with a 2.89 ERA.

He's allowed 32 hits, 12 earned runs in 37 2-3 innings, while walking 13 and striking out 29 with a 1.21 WHIP.

In his last outing, Greene threw eight shutout innings to earn the victory against the Detroit Tigers. Smyly enters with a 7-10 record and a 3.73 ERA. He blanked Texas over 7 2-3 innings on Monday in his second start since being dealt as part of the David Price trade. Smyly has allowed 121 hits in 118 1-3 to go along with 36 walks, 104 strikeouts and a 1.33 WHIP.

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Yankees' bats come alive in win over the Red Sox

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

There's no other way to look at it: Michael Pineda is all but certain to be the Yankees' fifth starter this season. In his second start of spring training, Pineda added to his brilliant spring resume by tossing 4.1 scoreless innings in the Yankees' 8-1 win over the Tuesday Boston Red Sox Tuesday afternoon in Tampa.

The Yankees used a four-run inning against Red Sox starter Felix Doubront to put them ahead big early in the game, and they never looked back, beating Boston in the first of two spring meetings.

Pineda looked just as sharp as he has all spring. He struck out five in before hitting his 60-pitch limit with one out in the 5th inning, giving up just four hits and no walks.

In 9 innings pitched this spring, Pineda has struck out 14 while issuing just one walk. One very noticeable thing is that when he misses on pitch, it's usually down in the strike zone, which is a good thing. I don't know how he wouldn't be named the fifth starter at this point.

The Yankees jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 1st inning on a soft liner to center field off the bat of Alfonso Soriano, who is coming into form after missing a decent chunk of time early in camp with the flu. After flying out the wall in center field in his second at-bat of the game, Soriano hit a three-run homerun to left field in his third at-bat, which extended the Yankees' lead to 8-0.

Soriano went 2-for-4 in the game with four RBIs. I have liked the way he's been swinging the bat this spring, and don't have any worries about him be a more-than-half decent hitter in the Bronx this season.

The Yankees did most of their damage against Doubront and the Sox in the four-run 2nd inning.

Both Ichiro Suzuki, who hasn't played too badly this spring, and Derek Jeter singled home runs, and then Mark Teixeira came up a couple batters later and singled into left field to plate two more.

As the spring has gone on, Teixeira has been playing well enough to make most of the questions surrounding his right wrist go away. Like a lot of others, he is swinging the bat well down here in Tampa, and assuming he can stay healthy, he should have a pretty good season.

After Soriano's homerun in the 4th inning, the Red Sox would end up tallying the only other run of the game in the 7th inning on a Jonathan Herrera single off of David Henderson.

In all, the Yankees collected 14 hits this afternoon -- 13 in the first four innings. This was one of the few times this spring that they played with almost their complete Opening Day lineup, minus Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann.

Out of the bullpen, David Robertson took over for Pineda in the 5th and gave up a single to the first hitter he faced, but came back to strikeout the next two. Shawn Kelley, Fred Lewis and Matt Daley all pitched perfect innings in the 6th, 8th, and 9th.

The Yankees will travel up to Orlando tomorrow to take on the Atlanta Braves. Ivan Nova will start that 1:05pm ET matchup, and Jeter will also be making the trip for his first road game this spring.

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Spring Training Game 22: Red Sox at Yankees

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

The Boston Red Sox travel up to Tampa today for their first of two meeting against the Yankees this spring. The Red Sox are a team that has not changed much since winning the World Series last season, though many of the regulars won't be playing in today's game.

Probably the most notable player taking the field for the Yankees today will be Michael Pineda, who is making his second start of the spring, and his third appearance overall.

Pineda made his first start of the spring last week against the Baltimore Orioles in a split-squad game in Tampa. He wasn't as sharp as he was in his spring debut, but he was still very impressive, striking out five in just over two scoreless innings, giving up just three hits and a walk.

Like we've mentioned before, his off-speed stuff is looking good, and the velocity might not get up into the high-90's, where it was before his surgery, but it's been looking fine in the 91-93 range, and should continue to build up as the season goes on.

Joe Girardi is expected to name his fifth starter by the end of the week, and the way things stand, Pineda looks to be the front-runner in that race with David Phelps, Adam Warren and Vidal Nuno not far behind.

Today's lineup against Boston:

Today's lineup vs BOS: Gardner LF, Jeter SS, Beltran RF, Teixeira 1B, Soriano DH, Cervelli C, Roberts 2B, Johnson 3B, Ichiro CF, Pineda SP.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 18, 2014

As expected, Jacoby Ellsbury is not in the lineup today as he continues to nurse some tightness in his right calf that the Yankees do not believe to be very serious.

Ellsbury was scratched from Sunday's lineup and had a full day of rest on Monday. His plan is to to have a normal day of hitting, running and throwing workouts on today, while he is not certain if he would be able to play tomorrow.

"I don't want to say yet, just because I haven't talked to them," Ellsbury said. "I'm going to go hit, throw, hit off the tee - just kind of do my normal routine. I'll go stretch out in the weight room and report back to them."

For the most part, the Yankees are playing a lot of their regulars today. There was a handful of roster cuts this morning that have yet to be announced, so the Yanks will also be playing with a lot less no-names for the rest of the spring. We'll have more details on who was cut later in the day, so stay tuned here.

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Tanaka dominates as the Yankees win 7-4

By: Josh Sabo | Minor League Writer

We're entering the part of spring training where stats start to mean slightly more. Teams are beginning to bring out out their real lineups, and are starting to allow their pitchers to throw more. Today the Yankees essentially faced the Braves starting lineup and Masahiro Tanaka was allowed to throw 74 pitches.

The Braves lineup didn't seem to faze Tanaka, as he looked excellent. He allowed one run in 4.1 innings, and struck out six batters. He struck out the following batters: Freddie Freeman, Justin Upton, Ryan Doumit, B.J Upton, Ernesto Mejia, and Tyler Greene. The one run he did allow was greatly aided by the wind, and probably should have been a fly out.

The Braves other three runs came in the 5th, 8th and 9th innings. In the fifth Matt Thornton allowed Jason Heyward to hit a double and then gave up a single to B.J Upton that scored the Braves second run. Thornton was throwing 93, but didn't look great. Considering that Heyward is a lefty Thornton really didn't do his job. I'd still feel comfortable using him as the primarily loogy, but he hasn't missed many bats this spring.

The Braves third run came in the 8th when Shane Greene allowed a homerun versus Justin Upton. The homerun was Greene's only bad pitch, as he looked very good versus the Braves starting lineup. Greene was able to strike-out Tyler Greene, Andrelton Simmons, B.J Upton, and Ernesto Meija. He really has nice off-spead stuff to go with a pretty good 2-seamer. Greene will start in Trenton and based what I've seen this spring should be Yankee eventually.

The final run came off Dillon Betances who finally had a shaky outing. He allowed a walk and a hit-by-pitch, but overall still looked solid. The run scored on a force-out and he got out of a jam with a strike-out. I think he has already won a bullpen spot, but he still shouldn't be hitting and walking people.

The Yankees scored most of their runs in the 5th, as they exploded for 6 runs, their other run came in the 2nd and gave them a early 1-0 lead.  The second inning run came off a RBI from Ichiro Suzuki which scored Ramon Flores. It should be noted that Flores and Mason Williams singled off of Julio Teheran; this is a pretty impressive feat for two of the team's better prospects.

The Yankees scored the rest of their runs in the fifth as Atahualpa Severino, was pretty wild. He began the inning by walking Ichiro and Eduardo Nunez. He recovered slightly by getting Mark Teixeira to pop-up. But Mccann came through with a 1 out double, to score two runs. Kelly Johnson then hit a line-drive single, which moved pinch-runner, Kyle Roller to third. Another hit by Ramon Flores scored Roller, and a wild pitch scored Kelly Johnson one batter later. A sac fly by Mason Williams and a fielding error allowed the Yankees to score two more runs, which was enough to win the game.

Other notes should include the fact that Shawn Kelley  had a perfect inning in the sixth and has really had a good spring, and that Mccann and Johnson really look good at the plate. But the main takeaway from this game is that Tanaka looks like a legitimate number 2 starter. He barely threw his fastball but was able to to throw it hard when he was in a jam. For this reason people shouldn't be that concerned with his velocity readings from Japan, as he knew what he was doing there. He saves his velocity for when he needs it.

It should also be noted that Ichiro, Flores and Williams all looked good today and show just how much depth this team has in their outfield.

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David Phelps pitches well, but the Yankees lose to the Twins

By: Adam Israel | Staff Writer

David Phelps took the mound today against the Minnesota Twins at George M. Steinbrenner Field to continue his fight for the number five spot in the rotation. The Twins defeated the Yankees 7-3 on a battle of the bullpens.

Despite the final score, Phelps pitched well, striking out four batters, while allowing two runs, including a home run, over four innings. Phelps curveball was on today as he said in an interview with Jack Curry of YES Network. Two of Phelps four strikeouts came on nasty curveballs. Besides a few blunders in the early innings, Phelps had good command and never lost control of the game.

Phelps gave up a leadoff double to Aaron Hicks in the first inning who later went on to score on a RBI single three batters later. After escaping the first inning only giving up one run, Phelps got throught the second inning fairly easily. Brian Dozier led off the third inning with a home run to left field. 

Manny Banuelos took over in the sixth inning and only lasted one out. Banuelos loaded the bases with no outs. After retiring Hicks, Bauelos gave up a two run double and was immediatey pulled from the game. Fred Lewis came on and allowed two more runs to score. After the four run sixth, the Twins did not score again in the game.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian Roberts led off the bottom of the first inning with back to back doubles off of Twins starting pitcher Kyle Gibson. Mark Teixeira drove in Roberts on a hard single to left field. The Yankees scored their third and final run on an Eduardo Nunez RBI groundout in the first inning that scored Teixeira.

After Gibson left the game after four innings, the Twins bullpen held the Yankees hitters hitless. The Yankees lack of production from their bench proved to contribute to the Yankees loss to the Twins.

Although it was a slow day for the Yankees, there were a few bright spots for the squad.

Teixeira hit the ball hard and reached base two of three times. In addition, he fielded and moved around well, which is a good sign for him.

Also, Dellin Betances continued his stellar spring, taking over for Lewis with the bases loaded and only one out. Betances did not allow a hit and struck out two batters setting down all five Twins he faced.

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Pitching powers Yankees past the Orioles in shutout win

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

Michael Pineda wasn't as good as he was in his first outing against the Detroit Tigers, but he was still pretty solid.

Making his first start of the spring, the young right-hander rebounded from a shaky first innings to give up just one hit over his final 1 2/3 innings as part of the Yankees' 6-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles Thursday afternoon in Tampa.

The Yankees' pitching staff was very dominant in this one, piling up 12 strikeouts on the day while giving up just five hits in the shutout effort.

Only half of the Yankees' squad was on hand for this game, with the other half not far away in Clearwater for a match against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Pineda gave up back-to-back singles after striking out Quintin Berry to start the game, but he was able to get out of the jam after Steve Pearce flew out to deep left field, chasing Alfonso Soriano, but the runners thought the ball would land so they took off and Henry Urrutia missed second on his way back to first, so the Yankees doubled him up.

The Orioles couldn't do much against him after the first inning, just the one other hit in his third inning of work.

Pineda struck out five of the 11 hitters he faced, and was throwing strike throughout -- 27 of 48 pitches. His offspeed pitches looked sharp, especially his slider. His velocity, however, was not quite there. He was in the 89-90 range, and hit 92 twice, as he continues to build up arm strength.

David Robertson took over for Pineda with two outs in the 3rd inning. He struck out Urrutia on three pitches, and that's where his day ended.

It was the same case for Matt Thornton, who retired the first batter he faced to open the 4th inning, then gave up a single that ended his day. Joe Girardi said during the game on YES that he was only getting in Robertson and Thornton so they could stay loose for the day.

The Yankees' offense was on the money today, picking up 10 hits, double what the Orioles were able to collect.

They started the scoring early when Carlos Beltran ripped a single into right field that scored Brett Gardner from second base, who singled to open the inning. The very next inning, it was Gardner doing the work at the plate following a double from Zoilo Almonte, he sent his own double into left field to double the Yanks' lead to 2-0.

Derek Jeter was the next batter and he tapped a comebacker to the mound and Bud Norris, trying to get Gardner out at third, threw to ball into left field, letting Gardner score.

Gardner was 2-for-4 on the day with a pair of runs scored, and Almonte also collected two hits in three at-bats.

Adding each run one at a time, Alfonso Soriano singled home Brian McCann in the 5th inning on a soft floater into center field, making it a 4-0 game.

The Yankees would stay up by four runs until the 8th when they tacked on two more thanks to a single by Adonis Garcia, and a double-play groundout Jose Gil, letting Corban Joseph score from third.

The Yankees' bullpen was impressive once again. After Robertson and Thornton, Bruce Billings tossed 2.2 innings of one-hit ball, striking out three. Chris Leroux has been very impressive as a non-roster invitee this spring, and he continued that Thursday with two perfect innings. And Cesar Cabral closed out the game with a scoreless 9th.

While most of the team will fly out to Panama tomorrow, the other half will stay in Tampa to host the Minnesota Twins at 1:05pm ET. David Phelps will be on the mound for the Yankees.

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Spring Training Games 16 and 17: Orioles at Yankees, Yankees at Phillies

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

Half of the Yankees' squad is in Tampa today to host the Baltimore Orioles at George M. Steinbrenner Field. First pitch is set for 1:05 pm ET, and the game will be televised on YES.

The other half will be in Clearwater for a matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies, which will also start at 1:05 pm ET but can only be seen on MLB.TV.

Michael Pineda will make his first start of the spring, and his first appearance in front of TV cameras for the first time in two years.

Pineda made his spring debut last week against the Detroit Tigers and it was a very encouraging debut. He struck out four, including Miguel Cabrera, in two scoreless innings. His slider looked very sharp, and he was sitting in the low 90's, which was a good thing to see from a guy that Yankees would love to get a lot out of this season.

This will be my first time watching Pineda pitch, so I'm pretty excited to see how he throws, especially after the great reviews he got after his last game, which was not televised.

Getting the ball for Team-B today will be Ivan Nova, who the Yankees are also counting on as their No. 4 starter this season.

Nova has been a little up an down so far this spring. His first start was not great, while his second was very impressive, striking out four in three hitless innings against the Washington Nationals. But he take another step back in his last outing, giving up three runs on eight hits to the Houston Astros.

Today's split-squad lineups vs Baltimore and Philadelphia:

Today's lineup vs BAL in Tampa: Gardner 8, Jeter 6, Beltran DH, McCann 2, Soriano 7, Nuñez 5, Anna 4, Almonte 9, Canzler 3, Pineda 1.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 13, 2014

Lineup vs PHI in Clearwater: Ellsbury 8, Suzuki 9, Teixeira 3, Johnson 5, Cervelli 2, Solarte 6, Sizemore 4, Flores 7, Romine DH, Nova 1.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 13, 2014

Pretty much everyone will be in action today. Derek Jeter will be in Tampa, playing shortstop today, and Mark Teixeira is on the road and playing first base today. Francisco Cervelli, who hit two homeruns yesterday, will be playing in Clearwater with Asutin Romine as the DH, while Brian McCann is in Tampa to catch Pineda.

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Zoilo Almonte's 9th inning homer helps Yankees tie the Tigers

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

With a runner on first base in the bottom of the 9th, Zoilo Almonte clubbed a long two-run homerun to right field off of Jose Ortega to the game at 7-7, completing the Yankees comeback in a game they would tie with the Detroit Tiger, 7-7, Wednesday afternoon at The Boss in Tampa.

Hiroki Kuroda got the call of the Yankees, and was hit hard right from the start. He gave up back-to-back singles to start the game; Ian Kinsler scored on the second single by Don Kelly when Carlos Beltran's throw from right field short-hopped past Kelly Johnson at third base.

That wasn't the end, because Kuroda would end up allowing three more runs in the innings.

A sac-fly by Victor Martinez brought home Kelly from third, then a few batters later with a pair of runners on base, Nick Castellanos hit a flyball to right-center field that dropped between Beltran and center fielder Mason Williams, making it a 4-0 game.

Heis control was one of his biggest problems. He was leaving a lot of pitches up in the zone during the first inning, giving up a lot of hard hits. He gave up a total of six runs on 10 hits in 3.1 innings.

The Tigers added two more runs off of Kuroda in the 3rd inning on a one-out double by Trevor Crowe.

If there was one high note on the day it was Francisco Cervelli, who really helped his trade value a little bit by hitting a pair of homeruns, both solo shots, for his 2nd and 3rd homeruns of the spring.

Cervelli, who has been drawing quite a bit of interest from teams this spring, has been playing very well over the plat couple of weeks, and it would take a lot at this point for him to not be the Yankees' backup catcher on Opening Day.

The Yankees began their late comeback in the 8th inning, scoring three runs to bring them within one run.

Almonte, Yangervis Solarte and Adonis Garcia all collected one-out hits to load the bases, then John Ryan Murphy groundout to score Almonte while making the second out of the inning ahead of Zelous Wheeler, who would hit a ground-rule double down the left field line to bring in two more runs.

Kuroda was not very good today, but the Yankees' bullpen was, combining for 4.1 scoreless innings from Shawn Kelley, Jose Campos, Fred Lewis, Danny Burawa and Chase Whitley before Robert Coello gave up a run in the 9th inning.

The Yankees will have their first split-squad games of the spring tomorrow, with Michael Pineda in Tampa to face the Baltimore Orioles as he makes his first start of the spring, and Ivan Nova will go on the road to Clearwater to face the Philadelphia Phillies.

Both games will start at 1:05pm ET and the game against the Orioles can be seen on YES, and the Phillies matchup will be on MLB.TV.

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Masahiro Tanaka strikes out 9 of 18 in simulated game

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

While the Yankees were getting ready to play the Washington Nationals in Viera today, Masahiro Tanaka was back in Tampa pitching in a simulated game, which you could count as his third start of the spring.

Tanaka struck out nine of 18 batters he faced in four innings, according to the Associated Press, giving up three hits, including a solo homerun. He threw 49 strikes during the 63-pitch outing, his longest of the spring so far.

Jake Cave hit the homer off Tanaka, while Cito Culver had two singles.

“I felt that I was able to do what I wanted to do today,” Tanaka told the AP through an interpreter. “Given that my split-finger wasn’t that good my last outing, I worked a lot on that today.”

Tanaka has made a pair of starts against actual Major League clubs this spring -- both against Phillies -- and he has been very impressive. He's given up one run on four hits in five innings overall. His splitter has been everything people say it is, and catcher Brian McCann has said that Tanaka is as good as advertised.

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Yankees and Rays play to a 10-inning tie in Tampa

David Phelps pitched five shutout innings, giving up just three hits, and Dellin Betances continued his great spring by tossing a scoreless 6th inning, but in the end, the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays played to a 10 inning tie on a sunny afternoon at The Boss in Tampa.

Down by a run entering the inning, Jose Gil and Adonis Garcia put together back-to-back two-out singles to put runners on the corners, and then Braulio Lara threw a wild pitch that brought home pinch-runner Antoan Richardson to tie the game.

After Scott Sizemore drew a walk, Adonis Garcia had a chance to win the game, but he grounded out on a terrible 2-0 pitch from Lara, sending the game into extra-innings, where the ballgame would end in a 3-3 tie.

Phelps continued his charge to be the Yankees' fifth starter with a great outing against the Rays. This was probably his best start of the spring, as he was able to work his way through five shutout innings, giving up just three hits, while striking out one, and he didn't issue any walks.

After giving up a double to Matt Joyce with one out in the first inning, Phelps went on a streak of setting down nine in-a-row before a Wil Myers single in the 4th.

I still believe that Phelps will start this season in the bullpen with Michael Pineda winning the fifth starter job as long as he continues to pitch the way he did in his debut Friday night.

Betances followed Phelps out of the bullpen, and was impressive once again. He gave up a one-out double to Desmond Jennings and left him stranded at third after striking out Joyce on a nasty slider, one of the breaking pitches that Betances has been using well this spring, and getting Myers to groundout the end the inning.

Betances hasn't given up a run in 6.1 innings this spring, and at this pace, I see no reason why Joe Girardi won't include him in his Opening Day bullpen.

After Bruce Billings took over on the mound to start the 7th inning, James Loney ripped a double the other way down the left field line, then scored a batter later when Sean Rodriguez dropped down a bunt that Billings threw away.

Rodriguez stole second base and eventually moved to third on a passed ball, and then Ryan Hanigan singled home to put double the Rays lead, making it 2-0.

The Yankees were able to cut Tampa's lead to 2-1 in the bottom half of the inning on a sac-fly by Brian Roberts.

The Rays put that run back on the board in the next inning on a Mikie Mahtook single against Danny Burawa, who has looked good this spring. The Yankees tried again to come back in the 8th, cutting to lead to one when Jose Pirela scored from third on a stolen base by Adonis Garcia.

Derek Jeter played six innings at shortstop and went 0-for-3 at the plate. However, Jeter had a handful of plays in the field and looked to be moving very well on every play. The way he's been moving around and running the bases in games has been a great sign early.

Alfonso Soriano played in his third spring training game and went 2-for-3 with one of those hits being an infield single. There has been some talk about the Yankees using Soriano at first base, btu he was only in left field for today's game.

The Yankees will have a complete off-day tomorrow -- seriously, nothing will be happening in camp. But they'll be back out on the field Tuesday when they travel to play the Washington Nationals at 1:05 pm ET.

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Spring Training Game 13: Rays at Yankees

The Yankees have gotten a lot of promising performances from their starting pitchers this spring, and David Phelps is looking to join that list. As one of the pitchers in the Yankees' fifth starter race, Phelps will be looking to turn out a good outing against the Tampa Bay Rays today at The Boss.

Phelps was roughed up in his last outing against a no-name Baltimore Orioles lineup.

With the O's playing almost none of their expected Opening Day starters, Phelps was being hit hard, but only gave up one run on five hits, while walking one and striking out two in 2.2 innings.

"They got some hits, but I feel like I was able to bear down those first two innings and pitch out of some spots, which is huge," Phelps said after the game. "If there's ever a time to work on something like that, Spring Training is a great time."

Joe Girardi has already said that he expects Phelps to be on the team in some capacity, whether it be in the rotation or the bullpen, where he has shown he can pitch, too.

If Michael Pineda continues to pitch as well as he did against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night, it might be his fifth starter job to lose, while Phelps ends up in the bullpen because he can pitch there, and the Yankees don't necessarily know if Pineda can handle life as a reliever.

Today's lineup against Tampa Bay:

Today's lineup vs TB: Ellsbury 8, Jeter 6, Beltran 9, McCann 2, Soriano 7, Johnson 3, Roberts 4, Ichiro DH, Solarte 5, Phelps 1.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 9, 2014

Girardi called Kelly Johnson to likely backup for Mark Teixeira this season, and with that comes Johnson's first start at first base this spring. Derek Jeter is back in the lineup, playing shortstop. The man we're all rooting for, Yangervis Solarte, will also be starting today as Girardi continues to showcase his versatility by penciling him in at third base.

Among the relievers listed for Girardi today are Dellin Betances, who has been great so far this spring, Preston Claiborne, switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, Mark Montgomery, Bruce Billings and Danny Burawa.

You can watch today's 1:05 pm ET game on YES or list on WFAN. You can even follow along on Twitter for updates.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog

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Yankees win on walk-off balk in Pineda's "very good" debut

Miguel Cabrera has won the American League MVP award in each of the past two seasons. Michael Pineda has pitched in the big leagues in two years. Friday night in Tampa, the two faced off on the diamond, and Pineda took Round 1.

After throwing a ball to leadoff the at-bat, Pineda fought back. Cabrera swung through a slider, strike one. Curveball taken for a strike. Up 1-2 in the count, Pineda went back to the slider and Cabrera swung right through it once again.

The strikeout of Cabrera was just one of the four that Pineda would rack up in his first appearance of the spring, and first against a major league team since 2012.

Even with Pineda's impressive performance, the Yankees almost didn't come away with the victory in this one, taking the game tied into the 9th after Matt Thornton gave up a pair of game-tying runs in the 7th, winning on a walk-off balk (yep) to beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2, at GMS Field Friday night.

Zelous Wheeler and Francisco Cervelli put together back-to-back base hits to put runners on the corners with one out, and with Jose Gil batting, Luis Marte balked to bring home Wheeler, ending the game.

Hiroki Kuroda kicked off the night by tossing 2.2 innings of scoreless baseball. Kuroda, like in his opening outing against the Philadelphia Phillies last weekend, looked good, according to the baseball writers on Twitter that were out the game.

“I struggled with my precise control today, so that caused a high pitch count,” he said. “I think I was too cautious and trying to get both corners, but it didn't really work.”

Kuroda only gave up one hit, while striking out five and walking one. By my standards, he's been the best Yankees starter of the spring.

Shawn Kelley entered in relief of Kuroda in the 3rd inning, and had a pretty easy one-out night. David Robertson got in his second out of the season, throwing a scoreless 4th inning, striking out one.

Then came Pineda, who was good. Very good.

"He looked very good and healthy," a scout told ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand.

“We liked what we saw,” Joe Girardi said. “I don’t want to make too much of it, but I’ve said all along he looks different what we've seen this spring compared to a couple of springs ago: the ball coming out of his hand, I thought he had cleaned up his mechanics a lot. This was a good step.”

Pineda had his fastball clocked in at 90-92 mph, and coming off of shoulder surgery, that's a good thing to hear. We've been waiting see Pineda pitch for a long time, and he did not disappoint tonight, striking out four in two innings, giving up just one single, and throwing 21 of 27 pitches for strikes.

“His slider was pretty much unhittable,” Brian McCann said. “… I think the thing I was impressed about was him pounding the zone with all of his pitches. He struck a guy out on a 0-2 slider. It was definitely encouraging.”

The Yankees scored one time in the game, and that was in the bottom of the 3rd inning when Carlos Beltran crushed a two-run homerun that might still be flying.

After Derek Jeter, who singled twice in the game, collected his second hit of the night to open the inning, Beltran took a swing that put the Yankees up 2-0.

The Tigers would tied the game in the 7th inning off of Thornton after Alex Avila grounded a one-out single into center field, then Austin Jackson tripled to score Avila, and Steve Lombardozz followed up with a single to bring home Jackson, tying the game.

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Gavin Ewbank is Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog

Follow @GavinEwbank Michael Pineda was very good in his long-awaited debut" data-via="YanksBeatBlog" href="https://twitter.com/share">Tweet

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Spring Training Game 11: Tigers at Yankees

Tonight in Tampa, Hiroki Kuroda will take the mound for the Yankees to start the game, but he won't be the headline as far as pitcher go.

For the first time in almost two years, Michael Pineda will step on the mound in a game for the Yankees as tonight is finally the night that he makes his spring debut, and facing a live major league opponent for the first time since 2012.

The Yankees have been moving Pineda along slowly this spring, compared to other pitchers, because of the shoulder surgery that he is still coming back from. And through his bullpens and simulated games, teammates and coaches have been saying good thing about Pineda and the way he is throwing the ball.

It'll be tough to tell until we seen him in actual games, like tonight, to know what he really has, but I doubt that those who have seen him throw would lie about how he looks.

Pineda will be one of the pitchers competing for the fifth starter spot in the rotation this season, and assuming he pitches well this spring, I think that there is a good chance he can win the job.

Kuroda is getting the ball to start the game for the first time this spring, but it'll be his second appearance. He made his spring debut last Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Kuroda looked sharp in that outing against the Phils, throwing 16 pitches in the two scoreless innings he tossed. He pitches looked sharp, but of course, Kuroda said afterwards that there was still work to be done.

Tonight's lineup vs Detroit:

Tonight's lineup vs DET: Ellsbury 8, Jeter 6, Beltran DH, McCann 2, Soriano 9, Roberts 4, Ichiro 7, Nunez 5, Canzler 3, Kuroda 1.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 7, 2014

Alfonso Soriano will be making the start in right field for the first time in his career. Jeter is in the lineup and playing shortstop for the second day in-a-row. Tonight's lineup will be a lot like the one that Joe Girardi deployed yesterday, in that it's pretty close to what we'll be seeing on Opening Day.

In the bullpen: David Robertson is slated to pitch right after Kuroda, with Pineda, Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton and Preston Clairborne following behind -- this is also the group of bullpen arms, minor one or two, we'll see during the season.

No tv or radio for tonight's game, sadly, with Pineda pitching for the first time, but you gave follow on Twitter for update.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog

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Francisco Cervelli goes yard in Yankees' loss to the Orioles

Prior to the start of camp, some people had beliefs that Chase Whitley could break camp with the Yankees in their bullpen. I'm no expert, but I don't think that his spring performance is helping him out at all.

Whitley entered the 7th inning with the Yankees up 2-1, but two hits, a hit-by-pitch and a walk later, he gave up two runs in the inning that let the Baltimore Orioles jump ahead, ending the Bombers' four-game spring winning streak with a 3-2 win over New York Tuesday night at GMS Field in Tampa.

Ryan Flaherty started the 7th inning for Baltimore be singling to right field, then Whitley hit Francisco Peguero with a pitch, putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Quintin Berry followed with a single into center field that scored Flaherty to tie the game at 2-2. After issuing a walk to Cord Phelps, Whitley finally record his first out of the inning by striking out Jonathan Schoop.

The Julio Borbon hit a hard grounder into the hole near first base, but Scott Sizemore made a nice diving catch to throw out Borbon, letting the go-ahead run come in to score.

Sizemore is working back from his second ACL tear, and if he plays enough, he might actually break camp with the major league squad.

“He looked OK,” Girardi said. “He’s been through a lot, and obviously each day that he goes out there I think he’s going to feel more comfortable and probably feel that he can overcome the stuff that he’s went through the last couple of years. But it was good to see him out there.”

The Yankees were the first team to get on the board when Francisco Cervelli hit his first homerun of the spring off of Wei-Yen Chen in the 2nd inning. Yankees catchers have been hitting very well this spring, and Cervelli continued the pace.

Cervelli said that he got lucky with the homerun, but also that he really is swinging the bat well early in camp.

“I've been working very hard with [Kevin Long] and can see the results,” Cervelli said. “But this is just trying to get ready for the season.”

After back-to-back singles following the Cervelli homerun, spring training standout Yangervis Solarte singled into left field to score Brendan Ryan -- who was hit on the hand by a line drive during BP -- giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

“He’s played really well, he really has,” Girardi said of Solarte. “We've moved him around. He’s played all over the infield, and we put him in left field. He’s a switch hitter. He has [raised some eyebrows].”

David Phelps was on the bump for the Yankees to start the game, making his second start of the spring, and this was not his best showing.

With the O's playing almost none of their expected Opening Day starters, Phelps was being hit hard, but only gave up one run on five hits, while walking one and striking out two in 2.2 innings.

"They got some hits, but I feel like I was able to bear down those first two innings and pitch out of some spots, which is huge," Phelps said. "If there's ever a time to work on something like that, Spring Training is a great time."

He ran into some trouble in the 3rd inning, which caused him to exit one-out shy of finishing his three inning workout. Phelps gave up a triple to David Lough to leadoff the inning, then Jemile Weeks brought him home on a groundout to Ryan at shortstop, for his only run given up.

Derek Jeter played the first four innings of the game as the DH before being replaced by Brian McCann, who hit a ball pretty hard in the 7th inning that looked like it might go out. Jeter went 0-for-2, and is still looking for his first hit of the spring.

The Yankees had seven hits in the game, but nobody collected more than one. Sizemore hit a long single into left field in the 8th inning. Both Adonis Garcia and Brian Roberts, who also walked, went 1-for-1.

Cesar Cabral, who has looked good so far, threw a scoreless 8th inning, and Preston Claiborne did the same thing in the same thing in the 9th, giving up just a single to open the inning, but nothing more.

The Yankees will hit the road tomorrow and head to Charlotte, Florida for an AL East matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays. Adam Warren gets the call for the Yankees, making his second start of the spring. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05pm EST.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog

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Spring Training Game 8: Orioles at Yankees

David Phelps will continue his fight to be the Yankees fifth starter tonight in Tampa when he faces the Baltimore Orioles in his second start of the spring at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

Jacoby Ellsbury, Derek Jeter and Carlos Beltran will be the most notable stars in the Bombers' lineup against the O's.

The Yankees enter tonight's game on a four-game winning streak after taking care of the Washington Nationals yesterday in Tampa. Ivan Nova started the game for the Yankees and looked very sharp, striking out four in three hitless innings, throwing 31 of 36 pitchers for strikes.

The Yankees used a four-run second inning against Ross Detwiler to take down the Nats, 4-2, in a game that also featured a scoreless inning from closer David Robertson.

Phelps' first start of the spring camp last week against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He pitched well, not great, but good enough.

He worked his way through two innings, giving up just the one run on the homerun and a single in the 2nd inning. He struck out four batter, all looking, and didn't issue a single walk. The homerun didn't get him off to a good start, but he settled in pretty well, had his fastball going for him, and certainly did not hurt himself in the race for the fifth starter job.

"I was trying to get the first guy to swing, and he wouldn't take the bat off his shoulder," Phelps said after the game. "I'll take it. The biggest thing I want to do this year is throw strikes, and if they're going to let me get them, I'm going to keep putting them in there."

Wei-Yin Chen will be on the mound for the Orioles tonight. He's making his first start of the spring, and is trying to improve on his 7-7 record and 4.07 ERA in 2013.

Tonight's lineup vs Baltimore:

Today's lineup vs BAL: Ellsbury CF, Jeter DH, Beltran RF, Roberts 2B, Nunez 3B, Cervelli C, Ryan SS, Canzler 1B, Solarte LF, Phelps RHP.
— Gavin Ewbank (@GavinEwbank) March 4, 2014

Jeter is playing in back-to-back games for the first time this spring, and it's his first time as the DH. After Jeter gets a couple of at-bats in, Brian McCann will take over as the DH. Early spring standout Yangervis Solarte will be getting to start in left field tonight. Matt Thornton is scheduled to make his spring debut tonight. And on an interesting note: switch-pitcher Pat Venditte was added to the list of relievers for the game, so definitely watch for his possible appearance.

The game will be on YES and MLB.TV, but you can also follow on Twitter for updates.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog

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