Dunedin, FL., March 5 — The first thing I noticed once the Yanks finished their pregame bp before Sunday’s game in Dunedin was that Joe Torre was carrying a small binder in his left hand as he watched his team assemble in the dugout. And it’s no wonder. Joe is seeing more players than ever this spring as he manages his WBC-depleted team through these early games, and it seems each and every one of them is taking advantage of the opportunity to show their stuff on baseball’s biggest stage. Melky Cabarera and Kevin Thompson continued to carry much of the offense, Mitch Jones made a diving grab in right to blunt the Jays’ biggest threat, and 19-year-old Philip Hughes made his debut against major league hitters.

There were highlights aplenty in the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays. Hughes was 11 months old when Mike Mussina was first selected in the major league draft, but Moose looked in mid-season form throwing 44 pitches and 2.7 innings in the start. The only one of four hits he allowed that was driven was former Yankee prospect John-Ford Griffin’s first-pitch double to right center with one down in the second. When Greg Zaun’s ensuing infield liner got through Mike and handcuffed Robinson Cano, Griffin scored as the ball caromed off toward left field for the only tally Mussina gave up. His strikes/balls ratio was 32/12, he threw 11 of 14 first-pitch strikes, and he whiffed two while walking none. And he made a great play in beating Jays shortstop Russ Adams to the first-base bag on a nifty snatch of a high hopper by first baseman Andy Phillips.

Pitching coach Ron Guidry removed Moose in favor of Hughes with two down in the third, and the tall righty’s first warmup pitch soared over catcher Jorge Posada’s head and smacked against the screen. Hughes’s fastball looks overpowering, but he missed with it too often, and when he grooved a 2-1 pitch to Zaun after a four-pitch walk starting the fourth, the switch hitter drove it off the wall in right center to deliver Toronto’s second run. Hughes recovered to get a routine fly, and issued another walk. But he was saved when Jones made a sprawling catch of Ron Cosby’s liner and doubled Zaun off second.

The Yankee offense, meanwhile, continued its recent trend of pounding opposition pitching while managing to score the fewest possible runs while doing so. Both center fielder Cabrera and DH Hideki Matsui stroked the first of three hits to no score in the first, but when Thompson managed a two-out single in the second and stole second on Ted Lilly’s too tardy pickoff throw to first, shortstop Felix Escalona delivered the first run of the game with a single to left. Cabrera followed with another bingle, and Robinson Cano smoked a two-hopper up the middle, but Toronto rookie second sacker Aaron Hill squelched the rally on a full body dive, quick leap to his feet and strong throw to first.

The Yanks barely skipped a beat once the Jays tied matters in the bottom of the second. Matsui doubled off new Toronto closer (and southpaw) B.J. Ryan leading off the third, and Jorge Posada delivered him with a single to right. But wild-pitched to third with one down, Posada was inexplicably held at third on Jones’s slow roller to short with the infield back, and the visitors settled for one when Russ Johnson grounded out. Kevin Thompson, who has seven hits and two walks in four games, led off the fourth with another one-base hit, but new Jays hurler Jason Fraser retired the next three in a row.

The Jays tied it that frame, but Matsui and Posada bunched singles starting the fifth off lefty Adrian Burnside, and Andy Phillips broke the tie with a double to the wall in right center for the Yanks’ 11th hit. Not only would the team not get another safety until Cabrera doubled in the ninth, they also failed to score Posada and Phillips, standing at third and second base, respectively, with no outs.

But it didn’t matter, because the Yankee pen held on. Newly signed lefty specialist Mike Myers retired two portsiders around a couple of right-handed hitters and Jeff Karsters and Matt DeSalvo got the final 11 outs. Karsters, in particular, mixed pitches well, got two swinging K’s, and survived back-to-back singles with two down in the seventh.

The folks at Knology Field in Dunedin entertained the largely Canadian crowd by announcing the much colder temps in several Canadian cities, and took a similar poke at New York. It was another perfect day, with a brilliant blue sky, a smattering of wispy clouds, and 73-degree temps. The loudspeaker further evoked chuckles all around by closing a list of local birthdays by including “Assistant to the Traveling Secretary George Costanza” from the old Seinfeld show as one celebrating his day of birth as well. Reggie Jackson briefly joined the Yankee braintrust outside their dugout in the fourth to considerable fanfare. Reggie lights up a room, so to speak, and he stands out from the group in accepting and warming to applause and accolades from the crowd. The 1-3 Yanks host these same Blue Jays at Legends Field Monday afternoon, the first of four straight home games.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!