New York Yankees take Game 1 of doubleheader in Tampa Bay

 The New York Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Saturday 

afternoon.  The game took place at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida and the final score was 8-4.

Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees and he pitched well.  Aaron Judge led the offense with three hits and 

Giancarlo Stanton and Gio Urshela added a couple of hits each.  

Cole pitched 4 2/3 innings giving up six hits and three runs with a walk and ten strikeouts.  Chad Green

picked up his second win of the season pitching 1 1/3 innings and giving up a run and two walks with 

two strikeouts and Adam Ottavino pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts.  

Tyler Glasnow pitched 2 2/3 innings giving up five hits and four runs with three walks and five 

strikeouts.  Glasnow took his first loss of the season.  Sean Gilmartin pitched 3 1/3 innings giving up 

five hits and three runs with a walk and four strikeouts and Oliver Drake pitched an inning giving up 

a hit and a run with a walk.  

DJ LeMahieu had a hit, Judge had three hits and two RBI and Mike Ford had a hit and two RBI.  

Stanton had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk, Gleyber Torres had a hit and drew a walk and Mike

Tauchman had a hit.  Urshela had two hits, three RBI and drew a walk, Gary Sanchez drew two walks

and Urshela and Tauchman each hit a double.  Ford, Stanton and Judge each hit a homerun and the 

Yankees were 1-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.  Tauchman had a stolen

base and Sanchez had a passed ball.  

Yandy Diaz had a hit, Ji-Man Choi had two hits and an RBI and Jose Martinez had a hit and two RBI.

Yoshi Tsutsugo drew a walk, Hunter Renfroe drew a walk and Joey Wendle drew a walk.  Willy Adames

had a hit, Kevin Kiermaier had an RBI and Mike Zunino had a hit.  Adames and Zunino each hit a 

double and Choi hit two doubles.  Martinez hit a homerun and the Rays were 2-8 with runners in 

scoring position and left five men on base.  

In the third Ford hit a two-run homerun to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.  Urshela hit a two-run doubleex

and the lead extended to 4-0.  In the fifth Stanton hit a solo homerun to push the lead to 5-0.  In the 

bottom of the fifth Choi hit an RBI double to cut the lead to 5-1.  Martinez hit a two-run homerun and 

it was cut to 5-3.  In the sixth Judge hit a two-run homerun to push the lead back to four at 7-3.  

In the bottom of the sixth Kiermaier hit an RBI groundout to make it 7-4 and that was as close as it

got.  Urshela added a sac fly in the seventh and the final score was 8-4.  

New York Yankees Summer Camp

The New York Yankees have been engaging in Summer Camp or Spring Training 2.0.  Whatever you want to call it, personally I think they are all kind of lame but it is what it is.  Baseball is back though and two weeks from today the Yankees will be opening up in Washington at 7:00PM.  Cole will be on the mound and it looks like Judge and Hicks will be in the lineup.  It will be a different kind of season with a 60 game sprint but the expectations for the Yankees shouldn't change.  They have a stacked team and should have the motivation to go out and try to win the whole thing.  Yes there will be an asterick this year but who cares if you are the champion you are still the champion and that should be just fine. 

The Yankees have been practicing and playing intrasquad games.  What have I noticed early on, well first of all Cole is maybe even more impressive then we thought.  We obviously all know how great he is as a pitcher.  But he is one heck of a competitor and leader as well.  Just listen to him talk and watch how he operates, it is amazing and just what the Yankees needed to lead their rotation.  James Paxton will be back as well as he had the extra time to heal from back surgery.  Masahiro Tanaka got hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton and suffered a concussion but he is doing well and should be ready to go for Opening day.  All of the pitchers have looked good but of course they are ahead of the hitters at this point. 

The hitters haven't really looked good at all, Thairo Estrada has stood out though as he has hit two homeruns.  Miguel Andujar took Cole deep so that is impressive and I think some people forget about him but he can hit and the Yankees will find at bats for him between outfield, DH, 3B and maybe even some 1B. 

Luke Voit has shed some pounds and looks great.  It will be interesting to see if he just takes the job or will there be any kind of platoon with Mike Ford as he is a lefty.  How about DH, it looks like especially early on it will be all Stanton as he is also healthy and they want to keep him out of the OF but eventually they may want to get other guys in the DH spot. 

It is such a different year because you really can't fool around and try things and say there is always tomorrow.  In baseball it is such a long season and they are used to not getting too high or too low but this year it is different because 60 games is so quick.  You can't afford to get off to a bad start or have a 10 game bad stretch, that could end your season. 

I think the Yankees still have the best team and so much depth that will help them.  I think they will win the division and then the playoffs are a crapshoot but I think they have a great chance to win it all.  Another interesting thing is no fans so there really is no homefield advantage this year.  That will be interesting to see how that affects teams.