New York Yankees defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3

The New York Yankees defeated the Atlanta Braves by the score of 8-3 on Saturday afternoon. Michael Pineda started for the Yankees and pitched pretty well. He was hit hard early on but recovered and only gave up a run and four hits in 2 2/3 innings. He did walk three guys and struck out one. Pineda had a mission today to throw changeups and it isn’t so much about the results right now. The one encouraging sign for him is that his velocity was up from his first start. It looks like he is slowly building up his velocity to peak form. He did get the win in the game. Jose Gil, Gary Sanchez and Jayson Nix all had two hits in the game. Alex Rodriguez also had a good game with a booming double and a couple of RBI. 
Cesar Cabral pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up no runs and no hits and striking out two batters. Brett Marshall pitched two innings walking two and striking out three. Michael O’Connor pitched a perfect inning, Ryan Pope pitched one inning giving up two hits and two runs with two walks and a strikeout. Dan Burawa pitched one inning giving up two hits and no runs with a strikeout.

Brett Gardner had a hit and a walk, Melky Mesa had an RBI and Andruw Jones had a walk. Kyle Higashioka had a hit, Alex Rodriguez had a hit and two RBI and Brandon Laird had a hit. Mark Teixeira had a hit, RBI and two walks. Jose Gil had two hits and an RBI, Raul Ibanez had a hit and Colin Curtis had an RBI. Gary Sanchez had two hits and an RBI, Justin Maxwell had a hit, RBI and a walk and Zoile Almonte had a hit. Doug Bernier had a hit and Nix had two hits.

It was the third straight win for the Yankees. The Yankees had doubles from Rodriguez, Nix and Almonte. The Yankees were 7-19 with runners in scoring position and they left 13 men on base. Maxwell and Gardner each had a stolen base. The Yankees will play split squad games tomorrow afternoon. They will play the Minnesota Twins in Fort Myers and take on the Philadelphia Phillies at home.