Masahiro Tanaka made his debut as a starter for the Yankees on Thursday and allowed a home run in an otherwise solid three innings of work in his team's 4-3 victory over the Phillies.
Spring training 2014: Masahiro Tanaka makes first start, Brandon Phillips talks about not talking
Masahiro Tanaka pitched, Brandon Phillips spoke and baseball was played.
Mike Carlson
More from our team sites
More from our team sites
The highly touted Japanese hurler recorded four groundball outs and a strikeout in his first two innings of work, allowing only one baserunner by way of Marlon Byrd's second-inning double. Tanaka induced three more groundouts in the third, but sandwiched in between was a home run off the bat of light-hitting infielder Freddy Galvis, who entered the game with two hits in 15 spring training plate appearances.
Tanaka ended his day having allowed a run on two hits in three innings while striking out one and walking none after battling a rain delay of 1:26 prior to taking the mound.
Phillips talks about not talking
Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips made headlines last month by declaring that he would not speak with reporters upon arriving to camp. That didn't stop Phillips from pouring out his feelings about being "mute" to Anthony Castrovince, who is a beat reporter for the Indians and apparently is not included in that bunch.
More from our team sites
More from our team sites
“I don’t have nothing to say to those cats. They know what the deal is. They just talk about how I was falling off and declining. How the [expletive] am I declining? I had 100 ... ribbies [RBI] last year. And I did that with one ... hand. And I won a Gold Glove? So how the [expletive] am I declining? Come on, man.”
Phillips went on to discuss being hurt by all of the offseason trade rumors involving him, and about how he now knows that baseball is a business.
Welcome to the party, Brandon.
Yasiel Puig throws out Mike Trout
In case you missed Grant Brisbee’s post from earlier today, serious baseball discussion fuel took place when this happened:
Today’s spring training scores
Yankees 4, Phillies 3
Indians 1, Cubs 0
Giants 3, Reds 2
Mariners 7, White Sox (SS) 4
Athletics 8, Diamondbacks 8
See More:
