"It's our house, we have to defend it", as the Yankees take game 1 at GMS

Tampa, FLA — The Yankees came to their Spring Training home, and the new, temporary home of the Tampa Bay Rays riding high on a 3 game winning streak looking to continue the week of good baseball.

⚾️ Final Score: 6-3 Yankees over the Rays

WP: Hill (2-0) 2.70

LP: Bradley (2-1) 5.24

SV: Williams (4)

📰 Will Warren got the start and got knocked out in the second inning, gave up a run but did not have his command. Yarbrough came in and left the bases loaded. He would go on to pitch 3 innings. only giving up 2 runs. The Yankees clawed back and on the back of a 4-hit game from Ben Rice, took the lead in the 6th inning and never looked back. Peraza made some nice plays at second after the Jazz ejection.

📊 Record: 12-7

📈 Streak: W4

🗓️: Friday at TB: C. Rodón (1-3) 5.48 vs. D. Rasmussen (1-0) 0.60

Will Warren got the start, and it was not a great outing for Warren. From the first inning, where Judge helped him out by gunning out a runner at third.

Will Warren got out of the first, but got into big trouble in the second inning. Manager Aaron Boone decided with the bases loaded and two outs to pull Warren out of the game and put in Ryan Yarbrough.

While the line does not look awful, his command was off all game. I also think that J.C. Escarra catching him today and not Austin Wells might not have helped because Warren is used to throwing to Wells and I noticed in the first inning Escarra shaking his glove below the zone calling for a curveball, which was a nasty pitch but the batter laid off and later singled. Warren also could not find a put-away pitch tonight which did not help the outing.

Ryan Yarbrough came in to pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning and got Lowe to strike out. Yarbrough, overall, pitched well. The only blemish being a two-run HR by Caminaro in the third. Yarbrough was able to give 2.2 innings of work which really helped the bullpen.

Tim Hill came in the game and pitched like Tim Hill should, getting funky swings and weak contact from batters.

Ian Hamilton then came into the game and struck out three of the five batters that he faced.

Devin Williams then came in for the save and had his second consecutive 1-2-3 outing, aided by a really nice play by Peraza at second (more on him later)

As for the Yankee offense, Judge got the scoring started early with an RBI single. He has been on such a huge tear lately. Even his outs have been loud or lasers. He really is a generational talent.

The Yankees would fail to score again in the inning, which has been an early issue for the middle/bottom of the order, so far.

The Yankees got back into the game with a Home Run off the bat of Oswaldo Cabrera.

Then the Yankees played small ball to get the game tied and take the lead back with RBI groundouts by Bellinger and Dominguez.

Then, Big Ben Rice, with his fourth hit of the night came up in a big spot, and delivered a bit hit to add on two insurance runs for the Yankees.

Ben Rice has been unstoppable to begin the season. Rice has been such a story beginning the season, hitting the ball harder than ever and the at-bats have been impressive. The conversation is starting to shift to what the Yankees need to do to keep Rice’s bat in the lineup when Stanton returns in early June. Manager Aaron Boone has shot down the idea of having Rice play at third base, so it looks like it could be a platoon between Rice and Stanton, but we have time till that decision needs to be made.

Then, in the seventh inning, HP Umpire John Bacon (a AAA Call-up) made an awful called Strike three to Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Jazz would chirp with Bacon and get ejected for arguing balls and strikes.

In addition to the ejection, Jazz took to X while the game was still going on and posted this:

According to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News, a league source told him that MLB is looking into the post as a violation of the MLBPA tech rules.

Jazz has struggled to begin the season, but the at-bat qualities have been better over the past three games. I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before Jazz breaks out this season. Maybe like Judge last year, the ejection will fuel him to go on a tear.

Oswald Peraza was brought in to play defense and he made his presence made. I did not know that he could play second base at that high of level, making a game altering play in the ninth inning to help out Devin Williams.

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