Game Day - Yankees vs. Phillies

It's a sunny and windy day in Clearwater with a lot of fans and press in attendance. The pitching matchup is getting way too much coverage for a spring game, but I can't fault the excitement and interest. The game will be aired on MLB Network, via tape delay, at 7 p.m. tonight. It's possible that those of us on the East Coast get blacked out of watching, but that's not definite and hopefully it's not the case.

Lineups:

Yankees
Gardner - CF
Jamie Hoffman - DH
Posada - C
Cano - 2B
Swisher - RF
Winn - LF
Juan Miranda - 1B
Ramiro Pena - SS
Brandon Laird - 3B

LHP C.C. Sabathia

Phillies
Jimmy Rollins - SS
Placido Polanco - 3B
Ben Francisco - CF
Jayson Werth - RF
John Mayberry - LF
Cody Ransom - 1B
Juan Castro - 2B
Brian Bocock - DH
Carlos Ruiz - C

RHP Roy Halladay

Things to Watch: Nick Johnson was originally slated to bat second and DH, but he was scratched at the last minute with a stiff lower back. Gardner is getting his turn in center, while Randy Winn is patrolling left, keep a close eye on how they do defensively. Jeter, A-Rod and Teixeira all didn't make the trip, so it's a good opportunity to see how the young infielders play. The story of the day is obviously the pitching match up of Cy Young contenders. Sabathia is scheduled to throw 35 pitches or two innings. I'm assuming Halladay has the same limitations.

Update: Johnson said that his stiff back was just a little tweak he felt during batting practice. He said it's not a big deal and that he would be playing if this was a regular season game.

Game Notes:

The Yankees lost 3-2 in another unusually exciting finish for a spring game. They scored twice to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth, but the Phillies were able to plate two runs off Wilkins Arias in the bottom of the frame to walk away victorious.

Box Score

Sabathia threw two scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks with no strikeouts. He wasn't thrilled about his performance, especially his delivery, but thought it went OK. His arm is feeling great and that's all you can ask for at this point.

Halladay looked his usual dominant self in his two innings of work, allowing no hits and no walks while striking out three. He threw 24 pitches, 21 of which were strikes.

The Yankees got scoreless innings from youngsters Zach McAllister, Zack Segovia, Ivan Nova and Mark Melancon. Boone Logan threw one and 1/3 perfect innings and looked good. Romulo Sanchez made his first appearance of the spring and gave up a run on two hits and a walk.

The team honored their prospects of the year before the game.

Bombers Beat has a wrap up of today's action and here are your LoHud notes from Thursday.