New York Yankees defeat the Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon.  The game took place at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida and the final score was 7-4.  Bryan Mitchell started for the Yankees and he didn’t pitch great.  Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge each had two hits to lead the offense. 

Mitchell pitched three innings giving up six hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts.  Mitchell did earn his third win of the spring.  Aroldis Chapman pitched to two batters and struck out one, Ben Heller pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two hits and a walk with three strikeouts and Chasen Shreve pitched two innings giving up a hit and he struck out two.  Ernesto Frieri pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run with a strikeout and J.R. Graham pitched a perfect inning and saved his first game of the spring. 

Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk, Hicks had two hits and three RBI and Rob Refsnyder had a hit and drew a walk.  Greg Bird had a hit and an RBI, Chris Carter drew a walk and Judge had two hits.  Austin Romine had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Kyle Higashioka had a hit and Ronald Torreyes had an RBI.  Ruben Tejada had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Thairo Estrada had a hit and Pete Kozma had a hit.  Refsnyder, Higashioka and Estrada each hit a double and Hicks and Tejada each hit a homerun.  The Yankees were 3-11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.  Tejada committed an error. 

In the second Torreyes hit a sac fly to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.  In the third Brad Miller hit a two-run single to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.  In the bottom of the third Hicks hit an RBI single to tie the game at two.  Bird hit an RBI single to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead still in the third and Romine hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 4-2.  In the fourth Mallex Smith reached on a force attempt error and a run scored to cut the lead to 4-3.  Hicks hit a two-run homerun in the fourth and it pushed the Yankees lead to 6-3.  Tejada hit a solo homerun in the sixth to make it a 7-3 game and in the eighth Angel Moreno hit an RBI double to cut the lead to 7-4 and that was the final score.