WHY IT'S A MEANINGLESS SPRING LOSS FOR THE YANKEES

The Yankees played a rare spring night game last night against the Baltimore Orioles and fell 6-3, read HERE. Ivan Nova got the start for the Yanks, his fourth this spring, and he struggled pretty badly in his first two innings of work, but settled down during his final two innings of work.

In total, Nova went 4 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and two homers. He also struck out four and didn’t walk a batter. Something Nova can hold onto, though, is that he allowed all five of his runs in the first two innings, and he settled down the final two. Hey, if you have a rough outing, it’s always nice to look at something positive.
One thing that could potentially be worse than a loss was Robinson Cano having to leave the game after getting hit by a pitch on the hand. X-Rays were negative and Joe Girardi said "He's fine". At least we can breathe a sigh of relief to that. Losing Cano for an extended period of time is the last thing the Yankees need, and it’s a good thing the injury isn’t serious. Cano went 0-for-3 last night and is now hitting .185 this spring.

Anyway, the Yanks didn’t come up with much offense tonight, as they scored just three runs. All three runs were driven by Justin Maxwell, Jose Gil, and DeWayne Wise. But at least we got to see a glimpse of the future. Top outfield prospect Mason Williams made an appearance last night as he subbed Brett Gardner in center field. He originally pinch-ran for Mark Teixeira and got caught stealing on a close play at second base. In his lone at bat Williams dunked a single to left field on the first pitch he saw. I don’t know if he saved the ball or not, but it was good to see the kid get a hit in his first game.

No big deal, it's a spring loss, it would have felt worse if Cano were really hurt, think about it.

Yankees have a rare night off tonight before hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates at GMS on Tuesday at 7 EST. The game can be seen on YES, MLB Network—which is on a delay—and MLB.tv.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse



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