Philadelphia Phillies defeat New York Yankees 9-3 - MLB Update
Leaving all the injury-stained memories of 2011 aside, Joe Blanton and Placido Polanco enliven Philadelphia Phillies’ season prospects by helping them to defeat New York Yankees 9-3 at Bright House Networks, Clearwater, Florida on March, 5 in their Major
League Baseball Spring Training Grapefruit game.
Followed by two scoreless innings, Phillies broke the ice in third and then went on a rampage in sixth accumulating six runs. Yankees tried to put up a reply in seventh adding two more runs, but Phillies lead proved too much in the end.
After seeing his game-time cut-down in the last season due to an elbow injury, Blanton taking five groundball outs, striking-out one and giving only two hits is something the Phillies will want repeated consistently. He also ended up shutting out two innings.
"I'm confident in how I feel," he said. "Really, really confident. I feel good."
Another player who stood out in the play for the Phillies was Polanco returning to the side after going through a plethora of injuries last season. Having only played 122 games last season, one hope he will experience a smooth season this year.
"I'm very happy. I dove for a ball and didn't feel anything," Polanco said. "I didn't expect anything because I've been here for a while and I've done a lot of stuff.”
After sitting in the dug-out in the previous three matches, he got his chance this time and ended up finishing 2-for-3. When asked about his sit-outs in earlier games, Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said, “He planned to work Polanco in slowly in the
beginning of spring training.”
Nearly missing his first home-run of Spring Training, Jim Thome, a designated hitter for the Phillies sent multiple hits across the park along with shortstop Jimmy Rollins. While Rollins went 2-for-2 and a walk, second baseman Michael Martinez improving
from a two-error Sunday game, substantiated Phillies’ lead in seventh inning by scoring a two-run home-run.
Michael Pineda making his Yankees’ debut showed great resilience in a match his club actually lost and got two consecutive strike-outs of Shane Victorino and Thome.
With hitters giving runs and pitchers keeping things tight for the opponents, Phillies can build on their win by showing equally impressive performance in the upcoming matches.
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