The Yankees fell to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday afternoon by a score of 5-4.
Here are the key takeaways…
-Veteran Carlos Carrasco got the start, and he was mostly good during his 2.0 innings of work. In the first, he allowed a pair of hitters to reach — one on a single and one via a hit-by-pitch — but he escaped the jam by getting a ground out to second base. In the second, Carrasco served up a solo home run to Ty France. Overall, he allowed one earned run on two hits with a hit batter.
–Everson Pereira and Dominic Smith homered for the Bombers. Pereira lifted a solo home run in the second, while Smith followed up a Ben Rice RBI hit with a two-run homer in the fifth inning, giving the Yankees a 4-2 lead. While Pereira (a top prospect), and Smith (a veteran on a minor league deal), are at different points in their careers, both players have an outside shot of making the Opening Day roster as bench players, especially when considering that Giancarlo Stanton‘s status is up in the air due to elbow issues.
-Power-hitting prospect Spencer Jones started in center field and ended up going 1-for-2 with a double and a walk. It’s obviously very early in spring, but Jones is looking to improve upon a 2024 season in which he struck out 200 times in 482 at-bats with Double-A Somerset.
-Rice had a nice day at the plate. Leading off and catching, Rice went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
-Right-hander Scott Effross came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth for the Yankees, but he threw just one pitch – a breaking ball – before leaving the game due to an apparent injury. Effross was seen grabbing near his hamstring after throwing the pitch.
Effross, 31, was traded to the Yankees in August 2022, but he’s been able to make just 16 appearances for New York. Effross missed all of 2023 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery before pitching in just three games in 2024 as a September call-up.
Who was the game MVP?
Smith, who drove in a pair of runs with his first long ball of the spring.
What’s next?
The Yankees host the St. Louis Cardinals in Tampa on Wednesday, with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m.
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