New York Yankees win fourth straight defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2

The New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies by the score of 6-2 on Wednesday night. The game took place at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Derek Jeter made his first start at shortstop, he didn’t have any hits and handled one ball that was hit his way. Andy Pettitte made his first start of the spring and pitched ok and Mariano Rivera had a good appearance. 
Pettitte pitched three innings giving up one run on three hits. He walked three and struck out three and he picked up the win. Cody Eppley pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts, Rivera pitched a 1-2-3 inning and David Aardsma pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run with a strikeout. Jim Miller pitched two innings giving up a hit and walking two with two strikeouts.

Jeter did draw a walk, Ichiro Suzuki had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk and Kevin Youkilis had a hit. Juan Rivera had two hits and an RBI, Ben Francisco in his Yankees debut had a hit and two RBI and Matt Diaz had a hit. Melky Mesa had a hit and an RBI, Gil Velazquez had a hit and drew a walk and Youkilis and Francisco each hit a double. The Yankees were 4-12 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Velazquez and Suzuki each had a stolen base.

Cliff Lee took the loss for the Phillies pitching 2 2/3 innings giving up six hits and five runs with only two of them being earned. He walked two and struck out two. Zach Miner pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two hits and a run with three strikeouts, Michael Stutes pitched two innings giving up a hit and walking one with two strikeouts and Justin De Fratus pitched a perfect inning. Chad Durbin pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts.

Chase Utley drew a walk, Cesar Hernandez had a hit and John Mayberry had two hits. Domonic Brown had a hit and an RBI, Jermaine Mitchell drew a walk and Darin Ruf had a hit and an RBI. Josh Fields had a hit and drew a walk. Hernandez hit a double and Ruf hit a homerun. The Phillies were 1-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. Revera and Mitchell each had a stolen base. Fields, Quintero, Lee, Utley and Stutes each committed an error.

Francisco hit a two run double in the first giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead. In the second Suzuki had an RBI single making it a 3-0 game. Brown hit an RBI single for the Phillies to make it 3-1 Yankees. Mesa had an RBI single in the third and Diaz scored on an error to make it 5-1 Yankees. In the fourth Rivera hit an RBI single making it 6-1 Yankees and then the final run was scored in the sixth. The Phillies cut the lead to 6-2 and that was as close as they would come. Ruf hit a solo homerun.

The Yankees record improved to 7-11 and the Phillies record dropped to 7-10. The Yankees will play at Dunedin, Florida on Thursday afternoon against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Phillies would host the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday afternoon.