Yankees Lose 12-8 to the Reds

The Yankees got very little pitching today, by the time the game reached 7th inning it was 12-0 Reds. Chien-Ming Wang gave up 6 runs on 6 hits in 2/3 of an inning. Darrell Rasner also got knocked around, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits with 3 walks in 2 innings of work. All the runs charged to Rasner came when Edwin Encarnacion hit a 4th inning grand slam. Sean Henn didn't do much better giving up 2 runs (1 earned) on 3 hits in his inning of work. Henn did strike out two batters, though.

On the bright-side, Billy Traber continues to make his case for being the lefty out of the pen, he threw a perfect inning and struck out a batter. Kyle Farnsworth, Scott Patterson, and Dan Giese, also pitched a scoreless inning each.

For the first six innings the Yankees offense consisted of two doubles by Johnny Damon, but that all changed when the Yankees scored four runs in both the 7th and 8th inning. The Yankees offense was kick-started by Bobby Abreu's solo homer in the 7th. After a couple men reached base, Austin Jackson drove in a run with an RBI single and then Chris Woodward followed with a 2-run double. The four runs in the 8th came of the bat of Greg Porter, who hit a grand slam

The next game for the Yankees is Friday vs. the Astros at Steinbrenner Field at 1:15 p.m.. Andy Pettitte will make the start, and Mariano Rivera is set to make his first appearance this spring.