Washington Nationals lose 3-4 to New York Yankees in Spring Training - MLB Update
Though much improved from yesterday’s poor performance against the same opposition, Washington Nationals lose 3-4 to New York Yankees again at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida on March 16, 2012 during their Spring Training Grapefruit League
contest.
Atahualpa Severino allowed a sacrifice fly to Brandon Laird and two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez in 10th as the Nationals lost.
Nationals maintained the lead until the fourth before the Yankees bounced back effectively for the tie that then stood until the ninth inning.
Yankees starter CC Sabathia did not provide the kind of start they were expecting, giving up three runs in three innings while being thrashed for a homer. Thanks to a timely entry of their reliever Phil Hughes, who then threw four scoreless innings, tightening
things up for Nationals in later half of the game.
The fact most of the heavy-weights of Yankees including their captain Derek Jeter were out in the game due to injuries can be enough to mount Nationals' frustration after the loss.
As it has been confirmed that Nationals’ starter Chien-Ming Wang (who met with an injury after stumbling on the field the other day) will miss out for few weeks, manager Davey Johnson will be looking for some replacements.
However Nationals will be extremely pleased by the way their starter, Gio Gonzalez produced six strike-outs and spent over three innings on the mound.
"Today was a learning curve for me," Gonzalez said. "There's more stuff for me to work on. Can't stay up in the zone. Can't walk people to get my pitch count up. Obviously I need to get my conditioning in, other stuff to work on, like staying tall and staying
back."
Nationals’ shortstop, Ian Desmond scored one run in three at-bats while hitting once. Even better was their third baseman, Steve Lombardozzi who connected hits thrice on three at-bats while also contributing one RBI.
With catcher Russell Martin and an out-fielder Nick Swisher serving injuries along with latest entry of their starter Wang into the list, manager Johnson will look to find reliable replacements. The manager will be hoping for a timely come back of these
players before the start of the regular season.
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