Last night, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the New York Yankees in Grapefruit League action, 6-3.
The offense came through for Baltimore as Adam Jones and Matt Wieters – who has been struggling at the plate – hit homers and gave them a 4-0 edge in the first inning. They jumped all over Yankee starter Ivan Nova – who was 16-4 with a 3.70 ERA last year – and was truly off on Sunday night. He gave up five runs in four innings of work.
Meanwhile, Alfredo Simon started for the Orioles on Sunday night and left early – after the second inning – due to a groin injury. Hopefully, his injury is minor and will not impact his status making the 25-man roster.
However, a scary moment for the Yankee’s Bill Hall came in the second inning as he was beaned in the head by Simon.
Hall, luckily, was able to get up on his own power. Thankfully, the pitch was a change-up in the 70 mp range, not a 90 mph-plus fastball.
On a side note, I was very impressed seeing Mike Wright on the mound. I did not know about him, aside from seeing a tall figure wearing number 98 pitching; however, he pitched remarkably well going 2 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and striking out four. Obviously, Wright is a name to keep your eye on.
Relievers Luis Ayala, Troy Patton (who also beaned Robinson Cano), Robert Hinton and Stuart Pomeranz each threw perfect innings. Jon Link gave up two runs in 2/3 innings.
For the Orioles, Endy Chavez and Robert Andino also drove in runs.
Finally, it also looks like Zach Britton has had yet another setback physically. He was scratched from a minor league start due to some soreness in his shoulder. Who knows what will happen with him this season, but I would not be surprised if he ended up on the DL, and did not start off with the Orioles on Opening Day.
