Raul Ibanez finding his stroke as the New York Yankees lose to the Baltimore Orioles

The New York Yankees lost 4-3 to the Baltimore Orioles tonight. David Phelps made the start and pitched ok, he gave up a bunch of hits but not many runs. Ibanez led the offense with two hits and two RBI. 
Phelps pitched five innings giving up seven hits and three runs with two of them being earned. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out four. Mariano Rivera pitched an inning and gave up a hit, Boone Logan faced two batters and got them both out and D.J. Mitchell took the loss pitching 2 1/3 innings giving up two hits and one run. He walked two and struck out three.

Derek Jeter had an RBI, Curtis Granderson had a hit and Alex Rodriguez had a hit. Eric Chavez drew a walk, Mark Teixeira had a hit and Ibanez had two hits and two RBI. Dewayne Wise drew a walk, Brett Gardner had a hit and Bill Hall had a hit. Eduardo Nunez had a hit and Francisco Cervelli drew a walk. Teixeira had a double and Ibanez a homerun.

The Yankees were 1-5 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. Nunez had a stolen base and Wise was caught stealing. Rodriguez and Jeter each made an error and Cervelli had a passed ball. The Yankees are now 13-11 in the grapefruit league. They have also tied a few games. The Yankees will host the Philadelphia Phillies tomorrow night at 7:05PM.

It appears that the Yankees are close to making a decision on the rotation. CC Sabathia is the ace followed by Hiroki Kuroda. It looks like Phil Hughes has the number three spot locked up and that Ivan Nova will make the rotation. The final spot appears to be a battle between Michael Pineda and Freddy Garcia. I would think Pineda will win it and Garcia will become the long man out of the bullpen. If Garcia wins it then Pineda will go to AAA. I don’t think after making the trade for him the Yankees want to deal with the fallout but we will see early next week or maybe even this weekend. The Yankees open the season next Friday which is Good Friday in Tampa Bay.