Splitter Decision

The Yanks picked up  their 6th win in 7 tries last night with an 8-7 victory  over a pretty respectable Atlanta Braves squad.

The Bombers  playing in front of 7,200 strong at the GMS took  an  8-0 lead into  the 7th inning, but the Braves came storming back to  score 5 in the 7th, and 2 more in the 8th.

All of the damage came off prospects Jordan Montgomery, J P Feyereisen, and Travis Hissong.. Montgomey’s line took a hit when in his 3rd inning of work he handed the  ball off to  J P Feyereisen, (Miller deal) with  2 men on base and one run in on a fielder’s choice.

Feyereisen, one of the kids coming to NY in the Miller deal coughed up  a 3 run Tater, to make it 8-4.. He  piggybacked the Camargo Big Fly, with another HR to Micah Johnson, 8-5 Yanks

Hissong served up  a 2 run Homer in the 8th to  close the gap 8-7, but Dan  Camarena  worked out of a 2 out jam, with the tying and go  ahead runs on base in the 9th.

For me the game started and ended after Mitchell  and Betances pitched 4 scoreless innings

Mitchell went 3 innings, no runs, no  hits, 1 BB, 1 K, 35 pitches…From what  we saw he looked pretty good..

Mitchell has what  they’re calling a big arm with a Fourseam Fastball (95mph), Cutter (92mph) and Curve (82mph), also mixing in a Sinker (95mph). He also rarely throws a Change (87mph).

Checking his  Per Pitch F/x page  we see Mitchell is mostly 4 seam FB, cutter, curve with a sprinkling of sinker and a seldom used change-up..

Mitchell’s pitch  selection, percentage of use

Cannonballs Marakavits finally made herself useful by uncovering  the fact Mitchell has adopted a new split finger pitch, thanks or no thanks  to Tanaka..

Let’s hope it doesn’t rip up his elbow, but that’s the chance he’ll  take..

If he can learn to  command a pitch that appears to be a fastball to the batter, but  then suddenly drops off the table towards home plate, it’ll  complete his starter repertoire..

The split finger fastball is sort of the old Fork Ball, and it really will subtract some velocity from Mitchell’s 4 seamer.. For the most part it’ll change the hitters eye level, it’ll give him a pitch  that  moves downward and  it will  perhaps replace the seldom used change-up as his off-speed pitch.

That was sort of the discussion during Mitchell’s 3rd inning of work

What you love the most about Mitchell, his make up… He pitches 3 scoreless and hitless innings but wasn’t  exactly enamored with his work

Mitchell was very effective, but not satisfied with his performance.

“I felt really good my first inning, but the second and third innings I really wasn’t attacking as well,” Mitchell said. “I had good results, but I felt like I could have thrown the ball a little bit better.”

PITCHING
Batters faced: Mitchell 10; Betances 4; Montgomery 11; Feyereisen 4; Hissong 5; Camarena 5
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: Mitchell 5-2; Betances 2-0; Montgomery 5-0; Feyereisen 0-2; Hissong 1-0; Camarena 1-1

Betances

Betances made his first  and I’m not sure if it’s his  only appearance until after the WBC.. ?He was throwing fast balls and a few curves  from 96 to  81..

He induced two  ground ball outs, then issued a 4 pitch  walk  to Matt Kemp.. Had it been a prospect or rookie on first base, good chance Betances would have been pitching with a man in scoring position and 2 out…

He went to  a 3-2 count on Tyler Flowers before unleashing a curve ball that Wilt Chamberlain wouldn’t have reached with a row boat paddle.. It was D-Bet’s first punch out of the Spring and it ended  his

1 inning, no  runs, no  hits,  1 BB, 1 K , 20 pitches

Betances heading to  the WBC will take him out of camp which is the bad news.. The good news, unlike Severino, Betances has the gig, and Tony Pena will be his Dominican Republic manager… I’m sure as bad as Tony wants to  win, he’ll keep  an  eye on Levine’s favorite Non-Closer

The DoughBoy

Maybe the media and the Bomber big wigs not being so politically correct with Ellsbury lit a fire under his ass, at least for one day..

The DoughBoy hit 2nd in the order, there is no  video  for some reason, but he launched a no  doubt about it HR in the first inning off LHP J Garcia.. He also racked up a double, and a HBP, so  for the moment, the Ellsbury-iers will  have to lay off the financial firm of Jacoby and Ellsbury

Hit’s and Runs

Jacoby Ellsbury (2-for-2 with a homer and double), second baseman Starlin Castro (2-for-3, RBI single) and Matt Holliday (1-for-3, RBI single).

BATTING
2B: Ellsbury (1, Wisler); Holliday (1, Wisler); Romine (1, Newcomb); Kozma (2, Newcomb)
HR: Ellsbury (1, 1st inning off J. García 0 on, 1 Out)
RBI: Ellsbury (1), Castro (5), Holliday (2), Headley (2), Torreyes (1), Fowler (1), Kozma (1)
SF: Headley
Yankees RISP: 8-14 (Holliday 1-1, Díaz 0-1, Choi 0-2, Torreyes 1-1, Kozma 1-1, Carter 0-2, Romine 1-1, Wade 1-2, Castro 1-1, Judge 1-1, Fowler 1-1)
Team LOB: 9
BASERUNNING
SB: Fowler (2, 2nd base off Krol/Flowers)
FIELDING
E: Castro (1, throw); D Solano 2 (2, throw 2)
DP: 2 (Torreyes-Castro-Carter, Torreyes-Kozma-Choi).

Videos

the Whole 9