Yanks Fall to Astros

The New York Yankees lost to the Houston Astros today by the score of 6-4. Alfredo Aceves got the start and for the first time this spring he struggled. He pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up 5 hits and 5 runs with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. His numbers do look a little worse then he pitched though. Most of the damage was done at the end of his outing but this clearly was his worst start of the spring. Mark Melancon pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up 2 hits and a run with a strikeout. Boone Logan pitched another scoreless inning, he did give up a hit and he had a strikeout. Brett Gardner had a couple of hits, one of them was a bunt single. The bunt hit was his 3rd of the spring, he had 2 all of last season. He has been hitting well lately and has his spring average up to 281, if he can hit like that then he will be a starting outfielder on this team. Mark Teixeira had a hit and walk and Alex Rodriguez continues to heat up as he had 2 hits and 2 rbi. Greg Golson and David Winfree each had a hit and Robinson Cano had a hit and rbi. Francisco Cervelli, Jon Weber, Kevin Russo, Ramiro Pena, Mike Rivera and Reid Gorecki all had a hit. The Yankees will host the Detroit Tigers tomorrow afternoon at 1:00PM on the YES network. Here are some postgame notes from today: Joe Girardi on the 5th starter competition being such a big topic "I think people are interested that is why, because once that is set, you iron out your bullpen from there. There's a lot kind of up in the air because you don't know who's in your bullpen because of the 5th starter spot. I'm not really suprised by the attention." The other competition is for the last roster spot and it is between Marcus Thames and Jaime Hoffman and neither is playing well. Hoffman is batting 130 and Thames is hitting 107 this spring. Girardi said they aren't in that big of a hurry to make that decision. The 5th starter should be decided by Friday. The Lohud Blog has audio of Joe Girardi speaking with the media. A.J. Burnett will start tomorrow with Phil Hughes pitching in relief. Joba will start on Monday with Andy Pettitte pitching in a minor league game.