It was a gorgeous day for baseball as the Phillies faced the Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Philadelphia pitcher Zach Wheeler got the ball to start.
In a Hole Early
Wheeler pitched only two innings, but gave up a blast for a grand slam in the second inning to Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner. New York would be on the scoreboard first, 4-0. Following that, J.D. Hammer threw a couple of pitches before heading out. Ivan Nova came in and pitched two innings and the rest of the game was back-to-back with relief pitchers Bryan Mitchell, Brandon Kintzler, and Tony Watson.
In the bottom of the first inning, Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton hit a laser double to the left field corner that moved Aaron Hicks to third, but the Yankees got out of the inning with a strikeout from Luke Voit. Gleyber Torres got a walk on a low pitch by Wheeler. Gary Sanchez hit a blooper to right field for a base hit that moved Torres to second. Miguel Andujar got a base hit past the second baseman to put a bases-loaded opportunity on Brett Gardner.
Gardner crushed one to deep right field for a grand slam home run to clear the bases, making it 4-0 Yankees in the bottom of the second inning.
It was pretty quiet in the third inning as neither team had much action and no one scored. Phillies pitcher Ivan Nova came in to pitch the bottom half of the inning. His mechanics looked great for the first few batters of the half inning, although he gave up some hits. Nova got out of it. Neither team scored in the next three innings.
Comeback Attempt
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Phillies made a pitching change that replaced Bryan Mitchell for Kintzler and Kintzler subsequently pitched a 1-2-3 bottom half of the inning.
Tony Watson started the bottom of the eighth. Watson struck out the first two batters, both Yankees Hoy Jun Park and Robinson Chirinos. Yankees Andrew Velazquez walked on a 3-2 count with two outs. Jay Bruce flew out to left field to end the half inning.
The Phillies led the top of the ninth with a Rodolfo Duran walk. Next, Luis Garcia got a base-on-balls and moved Duran to second with no outs. Christian Bethancourt struck out before Luke Williams came up to the plate with runners on first and second with one out and struck out. With two outs, Matt Vierling, with runners on first and second, hit a liner to right field for the final out and the Yankees beat the Phillies 4-0.
Next up: Philadelphia will be off on Monday, March 8 and will get back to work on Tuesday March 9 against the Toronto Blue Jays at TD Ballpark. First pitch is slated for 1:07 p.m. EST.
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