Recap of Yankees Split Squad Day

The New York Yankees played split squad games today, one was this afternoon at home against the Detroit Tigers and one tonight at the Tampa Bay Rays. They won the afternoon game at home 6-2 and lost tonights game 6-2. The afternoon game was started by CC Sabathia who pitched well. Sabathia pitched 5 1/3 allowing 4 hits and 2 runs. He walked a couple of batters and struck out 8. Jon Albaladejo pitched 2 /3 of an inning allowing a hit, 0 runs and he had a strikeout. Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. He only threw 10 pitches I believe, so it was a typical Mariano inning, he didn't throw any more in the bullpen. He is scheduled to pitch again on Sunday. Royce Ring pitched a scoreless inning with a walk and strikeout and Ryan Pope finished off the game with a scoreless inning with a strikeout. Derek Jeter had a hit, 2 rbi and a walk, Nick Johnson had a walk and Jon Weber had 2 hits and a rbi. Alex Rodriguez had 2 hits and a rbi. One of the hits was a monster homerun that was hit over the left field scoreboard. Robinson Cano and P.J. Pilittere each had a hit and Greg Golson had 2 hits. Notes from today: After the first game Joe Girardi was asked what was more impressive CC Sabathias outing or A-rods homerun. Here is what he said "I really liked what CC did today, his last 2 starts he has been extremely efficient, and he had command all day today. Outstanding changeup, very good breaking ball, pace was great. It's pretty much what CC is." He smiled and said this about A-rods homerun "Alex's ball was pretty impressive." CC said he was pretty happy with everything but still wants to work on burying the ball inside against right handers. There is audio of CC Sabathia on the Lohud Yankees Blog. Chad Jennings does a great job and he has all the notes from today and audio, check it out here. Here is what Alex had to say about his homerun. "That one felt really good, because it wasn't an everyday homerun." He wasn't too worked up over his first homerun though. He also said this, "My emphasis the first part of spring training is to go out and make sure I get my work done, and that goes way early in the morning. As you get closer to opening day, obviously you want to make sure, you hone in on your swing, and so far so good. I had a really good session with Kevin Long and Butch Wynegar on one of the back fields a couple of days ago and we're on schedule." Butch Wynegar is the AAA Scranton hitting coach for those of you who don't know. He is also a former Yankees catcher. Damaso Marte has been pushed back to Sunday. Joe Girardi said he just wanted to give him an extra day. Marte said he isn't 100 percent, he said it is ok on the outside but he feels it inside. He got hit pretty good on the back and I would expect him to feel it for a little while. Romulo Sanchez was optioned to AAA Scranton and Ryan Pope was reassigned to minor league camp.