Split Squad recap

The New York Yankees defeated the Houston Astros at home in Tampa today 3-1 behind 4 perfect innings from AJ Burnett. He threw 40 pitches 32 of them for strikes, he was so good he had to go to the bullpen and throw 10 more pitches out of the stretch. His stuff is just electric and hopefully for the Yankees he is just coming into his own after last year. Dan Giese came in relief for him and gave up a solo hr and 2 hits in 2 innings with 3 strikeouts. Edwar Ramirez made his first appearance of the spring after having some shoulder discomfort and pitched a scoreless inning with 1 hit and 1k. Brian Bruney looked really impressive pitching a perfect inning with 2k's. Jason Johnson finished it off with a couple of hits but got out of it. It was also his first appearance of the spring and he is a good story after having retinal cancer and also being the first guy to wear a diabetic device on his hip. The offense did just enough with Johnny Damon hitting a solo hr, Cody Ransom continued his impressive spring with 2 hits, Berroa had a hit and Matsui also had a hit and looks good working the pitcher. Brett Gardner also had a hit but struck out twice. The story of the day was definitely AJ Burnett who was just filthy, it was good to see him on TV and look that good dreaming about a super summer. In the other game at Bradenton against Pittsburgh Phil Hughes got the start and in the first inning gave up 2 solo hrs and then settled down. He finished with just those 2 hits in 3 innings but 3 walks and 2k's. Albaladejo pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout, Ian Kennedy pitched better today going 3 innings with 3 hits 1 run, 1 walk and 5 k's. Mark Melancon had his first bad game pitching 2/3 of an inning giving up 6 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk and 1k. He gave up 2hr. On the offensive side the top prospects had a good day with Jesus Montero hitting a grandslam and also drawing a walk and Austin Jackson going 2-4 with 2rbi. Melky Cabrera went 1-4 with a rbi. Nick Swisher went 0-2 with a walk, Big Tex had a bad day striking out 3 times. Shelly Duncan went 1-2 with a rbi. If you check out Peter Abrahams site at http://yankees.lhblogs.com he has audio of AJ Burnett after the game, definitely worth listening too. Mo is ready to go for Tuesday and Jorge for tomorrow behind the plate. Wang went home today with a cold. Phil Hughes said he feels strong and good he was just a little off trying to work on some of his other pitches, the cutter and changeup. Joe Girardi talked to Arod today and he is off crutches feeling good and about to move his rehab into the pool. Colin Curtis and Austin Romine were reassigned to minor league camp and Mike Dunn was optioned out. The closer it gets to opening day the more and more guys we will see going back down or over to minor league camp.