Kissimmee, Fla., March 7, 2015 — For five innings Saturday in Kissimmee, the Yankees were frustrating their fans with more of their 2014 attack. The Friday evening plan featured two singles until three eighth-inning hits produced a run; now a second-inning Mark Teixeira line single and a walk was the sole output. This stood in stark relief against what the Astros had done in their first inning against veteran righthander Scott Baker, a free agent trying to land a spot with the Yanks.

Speedy second baseman Jose Altuve reached on an infield single when new pinstriped shortstop Didi Gregorious’s bounce throw glanced off Teixeira’s glove, but only after Didi made a stunning grab on the hotshot that appeared to already be past him in the hole. Baker’s next four pitches netted single, single, double, single for the ‘stros, for a startlingly quick 3-0 lead. Both a following single, which loaded the bases, then a one-out triple in the third off lefty Sean de Paula, each failed to plate a fourth run.

Five straight grounders got De Paula through the third and fourth by the same score, and outfielder Ramon Flores closed the gap to 3-1 off veteran southpaw Tony Sipp with the visitors’ second hit, a home run down the right field line to start the sixth. The recent draftees then took over, with seventh-round 2013 pick Nick Rumbelow, a hard-throwing righty with a deceptive late head jerk reminiscent of Jim Bouton, pitching a scoreless fifth, but he did give the run back on a triple in the sixth. Tenth-rounder from the same class, southpaw Tyler Webb, escaped that frame, though between the two draftees the three, 3-0 counts (resulting in a walk and a hit by pitch) had us longing for Baker’s work in the first. They were sloppy, but effective, and from that point on, veteran Kyle Davies and contributors from rookie camp Brendan Compton and Zach Nuding blanked the home team on three singles.

Not so the Yankee offense. Jack Cave, a sixth-round 2012 pick who drove in the lone run Friday night, turned the tables with a leadoff no-doubter to right to start the eighth, 4-2. Jose Pirela delivered the third run with a vicious liner to the left center field gap for three bases with one down, but he would be thrown out trying to score on a grounder. Tyler Wade got the ninth started with a single, and Jonathan Galvez and Cave singled as well. After a walk and a strike out, two fifth-round picks delivered the coup de grace: Rob Refsnyder (2012) lashed a two-run single for the lead, and Greg Bird (2011) homered to dead center for two more, but only after a balk cost him a third rbi.

The six-run outburst carried the Yanks to a nine-inning victory once the ‘stros went down in order in the bottom of the ninth. Twenty-seven outs in, the win would have been complete, even before March 7, 1857. That was the day it was first determined that a complete ballgame constituted nine innings, not nine runs. The Yanks were doubly covered in this one, because the six-spot gave them nine runs too, 9-4.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!