Yankees edge Pirates with late run
TAMPA – Ezequiel Duran drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth inning to drive in the winning run as the New York Yankees edged the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 Wednesday night in a spring training game.
The walk came off Blake Cederlind, who gave up a hit and two walks in 2/3 of an inning.
Pittsburgh fell behind 5-0 after three innings before scoring five times in the sixth inning to tie the score. Pittsburgh’s Brian Goodwin hit a grand slam off former Pirates pitcher Justin Wilson. Jared Oliva had a RBI for the Pirates.
Starting pitcher Trevor Anderson gave up five New York runs. Anderson allowed eight hits, including home runs to Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torress, in three innings.
The Pirates were held to five hits.
Rangers in line for full capacity:
The Texas Rangers are on track to become the first team in Major League Baseball or any major U.S.-based sports league to have a full-capacity crowd since the coronavirus pandemic started altering the sports landscape a year ago.
On the same day Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order took effect allowing businesses in the state to operate at 100% capacity, Rangers CEO Neil Leibman said Wednesday that the team hopes to be at that for the April 5 opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“We’re very confident we won’t be a super-spreader event,” said Leibman, who is also the team’s president of business operations. “With all the protocols that we’re following, we’ll be extremely responsible and provide a very comfortable environment for somebody to enjoy the game without worrying we’re going to be a spreader event.”
The pandemic could still alter the team’s intent to host a capacity crowd at the 40,518-seat Globe Life Field, which the Rangers opened last year without fans in the stands.
Local officials are still able to impose “mitigation strategies,” such as reduced capacity, if virus hospitalizations exceed 15% of all hospital capacity in their region over certain periods.