Yankees Finish Spring All Tied Up

Travel, lack of pitchers ends final exhibition in 3-3 tie

The Yankees departed Phoenix yesterday evening and headed towards Oakland for Monday's opener. A lot of them had probably already mentally departed earlier in the day. The Yankees finished their exhibition schedule with a 3-3 tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks. For the second straight day the Yankees rallied, but this time couldn't hold the lead once they had taken it. Miguel Cairo tied the game at 2-2 with a solo home run off of Claudio Vargas. It was Cairo's second blast of the spring. The Yankees then took the lead when Bubba Crosby laid down a perfect squeeze bunt scoring Felix Escalona from third.

Ron Villone entered the game in the bottom half of the eighth to protect the lead, but it was quickly erased when he served up a gopher ball to Brian Barden. Shawn Chacon had started for New York, going 5 innings and allowing 2 runs, one of them on a solo home run by Jerry Gil. Chacon will start the 4th game of the regular season next Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels.

The Yankees managed just 5 hits off of starter Miguel Batista and five relievers. The Yankees have tried a return to small ball this spring and scored their first run in just that manner. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Jorge Posada was issued a lead off walk and went to second on Robinson Cano's single. Chacon sacrificed the runners over and Bernie Williams grounded out to second, scoring Posada.

Notes

Mariano Rivera got his final sixth inning tune up with a scoreless inning.

As expected, Carl Pavano, Aaron Small and Octavio Dotel were each placed on the 15-day disabled list. Luis Garcia was given his outright release, while Ramiro Mendoza, Felix Escalona, Matt Smith, Matt Childers, Omar Santos, Russ Johnson, Damian Rolls, and Jose Veras were sent to Columbus. Mendoza could quickly be recalled if Scott Proctor needs to spend a significant amount time away from the team. Proctor's newborn daughter is seriously ill with an undisclosed ailment.

The weather forecast is not good for Monday's opener. With a 70% chance of rain, the contingency is to play a day/night doubleheader on Tuesday.