Tampa, Fla., February 27, 2013 – In a pre-WBC world, much of the Spring Training buzz, at least on the Grapefruit League side, was ballclubs complaining when visiting squads failed to bring a representative group of players to games. Perhaps we can all acknowledge that the purpose of this four-week (or more like six-week, this year) exercise is to get each team ready to battle for six months of regular season play, and hopefully for a bit more. But it also needs to be said that Spring Training has totally lost its amateur status: Corporate-size entities are charging paying customers real money to attend these games, to pay inflated concession costs, even to buy gear designed specifically for the Spring game alone.

In an ugly 10-7 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at George M. Steinbrenner Stadium Wednesday afternoon, the visiting squad was not peppered with regulars, but neither was that of the home-standing Yankees. But even more telling is that for the fourth straight day the Bombers started a pitcher with virtually no chance to make their club heading north in April. Despite three losses, until today that gamble has actually been paying off. The young hurlers have been doing well, but that changed today.

Southpaw Nik Turley had his stock rise in 2012 as he pitched well in the High-A minors. But when he got the ball Wednesday afternoon, he was not up to the task. He fell behind his first batter 3-0, then walked him, and worsened matters on a wild pick-off to first. Ensuing back-to-back singles produced a 1-0 Baltimore lead, with left fielder Steve Pearse, a guy who actually played a month in pinstripes last year, up next. And he performed this day like he had something to prove, promptly doubling to right center for one run. A throwing error at short plated both Pearse and a teammate, then two wild pitches led to a fifth run. Turley would strike out Lew Ford before being removed, but by that time the first five Orioles he faced had reached, and all five had scored.

Pearse was at it again in no time. Cody Eppley came on to retire four straight, including the first two batters in the second, but a walk and a double set him up, and Pearse singled in two more for a 7-0 Orioles lead. Turley’s pitching and “D” had hurt, and veteran Jayson Nix, a backup infielder last year playing short, was having an equally bad day. In the first he both failed to retire a runner on a soft grounder, then threw another grounder away for the inning’s second error. And when Brett Gardner walked to start the home first, Nix doubled him up on the second pitch he saw. Not done, Jayson would take strike three his next two times to the plate, the former Gardner stranding with a key run at third base.

Amazingly, thanks to two second-inning singles, two walks, and Gardner’s stellar at bat against Jake Arrieta, by then it was a game again on Brett the Jet’s three-run triple. He worked the count full, just got a piece on the next pitch, then drove the ball to the wall in left center. But once Nix stranded him on third, the Yanks would not score again until the ninth.

In the meantime, pitching came to the fore, though the sloppy Yankee play would continue as well. Lefty Francisco Rondon pitched the third and fourth, opposing uber-prospect Dylan Bundy for the Birds. Bundy did keep the Yanks off the board, but not impressively, allowing a walk, a single, and Zoilo Almonte’s drive to the warning track in center. Rondon, on the other hand, pitched around Corban Joseph’s two-base error to his first batter by eventually coaxing a dp ball, then struck out the first two up in the fourth, including Pearse. Tom Kahnle and prospect Mark Montgomery turned in a scoreless frame each, with Francisco Cervelli, in for starter Chris Stewart, throwing out his second runner in three days, Yamaico Navarro, after his lead-off walk in the sixth.

But the continued ragged play came back to haunt the Yanks and lefty Josh Spence in the seventh. In at third for Joseph, Walter Ibarra teamed with him for a rare double, when he became the second third sacker to throw a grounder into the stands behind first in the same game. A single, walk, fielder’s choice, and catcher Luis Exposito’s ground single off Ibarra’s glove produced three more runs, for a 10-4 Orioles lead.

Still, the Yankees defense did not improve. Jose Pirela threw a ball past second in the eighth, and Stewart, who had failed to corral either of Turley’s first-inning wild pitches, was saved from recording the team’s sixth error because on his throw trying to catch a runner stealing in the fifth, Ford became tangled at second base and couldn’t get up and run to third.

Of course, as stated earlier, these games are not about winning, but rather are designed to set a roster and prepare it for the six-month season, and in that respect there were some successes. Gardner was superb at the plate and in left field, and both Zoilo Almonte and Slade Heathcott played well in the outfield, each contributing a single in addition to Almonte’s long drive. Juan Rivera had a bloop double from the DH spot, but his labored and failed run on an infield single attempt in the second blunted the first Yankee rally; he does not look fast enough to handle an outfield job. Stewart had a key rbi single for the first home team score, and Cervelli had a base hit too.

And last, the baby Yankees gave the hundreds of the 7,000 fans remaining in the bottom of the ninth some real excitement for their money’s worth. An Ibarra single and Ramon Flores walk got it started with one down. Following a second out, a Pirela one-base hit scored one, and a Kyle Roller hard single sandwiched between walks to Kyle Higashioka and Tyler Austin plated two more. The Yanks had the bases loaded with the winning run at the plate, an occurrence few would have anticipated happening in this game’s second or eighth innings. Adonis Garcia smacked a pitch toward third, but Navarro niftily picked it and threw him out for the game’s final out, 10-7 O’s.

And not for nothing, the day was gorgeous, low 70s under blinding sun, conditions expected to be duplicated Thursday, when the Yanks are set to play three straight games with guys who started for the 2012 team pitching. Hopefully when the position players see some solid pitching early, they’ll stop throwing the ball all over the place as they did today.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!