Deivi Garcia delivered on the mound Friday night as the Yankees fell to the Phillies 4-1 at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The Phillies scored all four of their runs in the ninth inning, with Kyle Barraclough surrendering three of the four runs.
Coonnrod (1-0) takes the win for the Phillies, Barraclough (0-1) the loss, and the save goes to Rondon (1).
Deivi Garcia Continues to Make Case for Roster Spot
The story tonight was Yankees pitching. It started with right-handed pitcher Deivi Garcia, who threw three scoreless innings on Friday night. Garcia did give up four walks over his four innings pitched, however he did not give up a hit or a run throughout his outing. He struck out two. Garcia has a 1.64 ERA through four appearances this spring.
Deivi said he felt really good on the mound on Friday night and learned a lot from his outing, including how important execution is. “When you’re walking guys, you have to learn to get out of that jam,” stated Garcia. He spoke as well on when Matt Blake came out to the mound after Garcia walked his third batter, saying Blake came out to calm him down and keep his focused on where he was and what was important to do to get out of the inning. He credited the break Blake gave him by coming out to being able to calm down, refocus, and get out of the inning.
Yankees Bullpen Blazes Until Ninth
Deivi Garcia was followed by Chapman (one inning), O’Day (1.0 IP), Wilson (1.0 IP), Green (1.0 IP), Luis Garcia (1.0 IP), Barraclough (0.2 IP), and McClain (0.1IP). Together the Yankees bullpen struck out nine, including the two strikeouts by Deivi Garcia, two by Green, and two by Barraclough. O’Day, Wilson, and Luis Garcia each had a strikeout as well.
Up until the Phillies’ ninth inning heroics, the Yankees bullpen did not surrender a run through eight. The Yankees first five pitchers also did not surrender a hit.
Aroldis Chapman also met with the media Friday night. When asked how he feels with less than two weeks until the regular season, Chapman said everything has felt really good. He said he came into camp in really good shape and feels good heading into opening day.
The way the Yankees pitching has performed for the Yankees this spring is an encouraging sign after the way they struggled in 2020. For the Yankees to succeed in 2021, pitching is going to need to be on point and Yankees pitchers will need to keep runs to a minimum to support the offense. In 2020, when the offense would succeed, the Yankees pitching faltered, negating the performance of the offense. Both sides need to perform well in 2021.
Offense Goes Quiet
There wasn’t much to show for the Yankees offense who went quiet on Friday night under the lights. The only hits were doubles by Aaron Hicks and Luke Voit. Voit’s double an RBI double that scored Aaron Judge for the Yankees’ only run of the night.
UP NEXT:
The Yankees will now head to Sarasota to take on the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night at 6:05 PM EDT. It will be Michael King (2-1, 4.00) for the Yankees vs Matt Harvey (0-0, 7.50) of the Orioles.
