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New York Yankees Reaction: Bats Go Quietly As Bombers Fall To Rays

The New York Yankees dropped Saturday afternoon’s ballgame against their divisional rivals, the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1. 

  • New York Yankees: 1 (3-7-2)
  • Tampa Bay Rays: 2 (5-6)
  • Charlotte Sports Park, Port Charlotte, FL
  • FINAL BOX SCORE

By Christian Kouroupakis

This was nothing more than a gloomy ballgame on a beautiful sunny afternoon down south. The New York Yankees went down without a fight scoring only one run on four hits and were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

The only bright spot in today’s contest was, Luis Severino‘s third start of the spring.

After looking rusty in his first outing, he bounced back in his second outing, and pitched 3.2 innings on Saturday while striking out four batters. It was his second scoreless performance in a row, but the 22-year old still owns a 5.63 spring ERA after a poor debut against the Detroit Tigers (surrendered five runs).

Johnny Barbato, who relieved Severino, was the losing pitcher after surrendering a two run double to Johnny Field in the bottom of the fifth inning.

James Pazos, Nick Goody, Anthony Swarzak, and Branden Pinder were able to pitch 3.1 scoreless innings. The four Yankee relievers only surrendered two hits and struck out five batters combined.

The only run for the Bombers came in the top of the seventh inning on a ground-out by Ronald Torreyes. Torreyes hit a routine ground ball to Rays’ shortstop Richie Shaffer to score Cesar Puello.

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The Yankees didn’t send many regular players on the 100-mile road trip down to Port Charlotte today, so the ballgame mainly consisted minor leaguers and non-roster players.

With the exception of Severino’s outing, Rob Refsnyder got the starting nod as the third baseman was the only aspect of this game worthy of noting.

The Yankees head back to George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa to host the Phillies on Sunday. CC Sabathia gets the starting nod as he continues to find his former self. Game time is 1:05 and the YES Network will be providing coverage.

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