New York Yankees’ journey in the 2011 MLB season – Part 5
As the winning streak had started and both the batters and the pitchers had gained some of their momentum back, the decision to make the final rotation had become more difficult for Girardi. Both veteran and young batters contributed in the three back-to-back
wins and it made the Yankees fans to think highly of their club.
Yankees hosted Pittsburgh Pirates with an ambition to take their revenge of the last outing, which they lost 2-0 on March 1. The 12th outing of Spring Training started under the scorching heat at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida
on March 9. Bartolo Colon was on the mound to contend with the Pirates’ Kevin Correia.
Colon threw a scoreless first but yielded four hits and two runs in the top of the second inning, which created trouble for the Yankees. However, the relief pitchers managed to restrict the Pirates to this score. The batters scored a single each in the bottom
of the first and fifth while two runs in the third to pile a 4-2 lead.
Just after the first four innings, Rafael Soriano entered to make his debut game and managed to strike one batter out over a single one-hitter inning. He tossed 13 strikes and completely astonished Girardi.
"First time out, good," Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi said. "I really didn't expect a lot different than that after watching the way he pitched last year."
Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Russell Martin joined their hands strongly to make their hitting impression over the Pirates. A new catcher Russell Martin went 2-for-3 to help the Yankees snatch their fourth consecutive win of Spring Training.
Yankees back-to-back wins created a sense of superiority in the club, but they were unaware of the upcoming disaster.
They visited Bright House Networks to take on the Philadelphia Phillies. It was the war between two of the best hurlers, CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay. Sabathia worked a brilliant five scoreless innings and struck-out two batters, but he did not receive support
from the relief pitchers. David Robertson gave away a run while Red Fish yielded a homer for three runs and Matt Prior received three runs to give the Phillies a 7-0 lead until the bottom of the eighth inning.
Halladay on the other hand struck-out two and tossed a four-hitter six innings on his stellar start to take the Phillies into a 7-0 shut-out. The Yankees batting was bewildered with the fastballs of Halladay. They could manage only four hits each by Brett
Gardner, Russell Martin, Jorge Posada and Ramiro Pena.
This might have not created any doubt in the mind of the Girardi about the upcoming hurricane, but the next game gave a hint of a storm.
The Yankees entered the field in a normal attitude against the Atlanta Braves, but the March 11 game caused some serious trouble for the club. Braves managed to take their revenge and defeated the Yankees 6-2 with an amazing seventh inning at George M. Steinbrenner
Field.
As the game was tied at two-all until the bottom of the sixth inning, Girardi considered it a normal situation and sent newcomer Steve Garrison, but the game suddenly stumbled to the Braves’ side. Garrison received four runs and five hits on his single inning
and the Braves took the outing 6-2.
It was the start of some bad times for the Yankees in Spring Training. After this, the Yankees had to wait until March 16 to witness another win.
Continued in Part 6
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