TAMPA – The first spring training game for the Yankees was held on Sunday, as well as their first experience playing with the redesigned baseball MLB they are using this season that many believed would not travel as far as in recent seasons. .
Very early results were mixed.
There were some balls hit during the batting practice, said Aaron Judge, who did not have as much distance on them as he and his teammates expected.
But in the game, with a 6-4, seven-inning defeat, against the Blue Jays at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the judge struck one at a deep center that surprised him by the proximity of being a man.
“It went a little beyond what I thought,” he said of the fourth-inning shot. “It simply came to our notice then. I knew I was missing it. But I saw that it was close to the court and I thought that maybe someone slipped into an old baseball for me ”.
Overall, however, the Yankees saw no noticeable change.
“It’s what I expected,” the judge said. “I noticed a small difference in the batting practice. The activated balls were not the same, but in the game I did not notice any difference “.
The same thing happened with Gleyber Torres, who said it was hard to know how the ball reacted during spring training due to differences in stands and weather.
“Let me see [if] there is a big difference during the regular season, “Torres said.” If you and I drop the ball, we don’t notice much, “Boone said.” But the guys who make a living will probably have some opinion as the weeks go by. “
A better test may come on Monday, when the Yankees host the Tigers and Gerrit Cole gets the start.
Cole has already been uncomfortable not knowing if he was using the new balls at the start of camp.
Aaron Boone believes veteran pitchers will shed more light on the issue.
Mike Tauchman started in midfield and followed a Rob Brantly home run with one of his own as the Yankees went behind at the end of the fifth.
Boone noted that Tauchman “didn’t score the man last year” while trying to find a place in the full Yankee camp.
“It feels great at the start of camp, it looks good moving and it looks good swinging the bat,” Boone said.
Clint Frazier, already designated as the initial left fielder, seemed to make a bad jump on a shallow fly in the fourth, but later at the entrance he did well to fight the sun to make a good catch on the left. deep.
“He’s earned his place here, but you always have to win him,” Boone said. “In the countryside [Sunday], I thought it was fine. … I thought he moved well with a couple of balls he caught. “
DJ LeMahieu was the Yankees ’first base runner with a single in the center lead at the end of the quarter after the first nine Yankees retired. … Bronx native and Fordham Prep product Andrew Velazquez came in as a pinch runner in the fourth.
Fans weren’t the only ones to make it back to the stands on Sunday. Scouts also attended. … The Yankees will continue to wear patch no. 16 in the sleeve in honor of Whitey Ford. He was also brought in during the postseason after the Hall of Famer’s death last October. … There was a moment of silence for Hank Steinbrenner, a former general partner and co-chair of the Yankees, who died in April after a long illness.