Clearwater, Fla. — Cordy Bellinger hit the ball Wednesday.
And it wasn't yet the most impressive ball that the Yankee hit at BayCare Ballpark.
It belonged to Ben Rice. Ben Rice came out of the bat at 110.3 mph, smoking an offering from Taiwan Walker for his fifth home run in the spring.
“[Rice is] It seems like they control every batting, and they seem to hit an absolute s-t out of the ball,” Bellinger said.
With the campaign bolstering the DH at-bats to begin the season, Rice clubbed one of four Homers with the Yankees 9-7 win over the Phillies, along with Bellinger, Jazz Chischorm Jr. and Pablo Reyes in a 9-7 victory.
He also drew two walks and finished the day batting .283 with .974 OPS in 15 games this spring.
“It's fun to watch,” Bellinger said. “It's fun to see him do the job. It seems like he has a really good idea of what he wants and what he wants to achieve.”
Meanwhile, Bellinger continued his own strong spring on a 2-4 show, hitting .475 (19-40) with a 1.348 OPS.
“I like where I am,” Bellinger said. “I just adjust it daily depending on how I feel and where my consistency is. I just stay there.”
The Yankees are targeting Paul Goldschmidt's Friday (Back) If you have passed baseball activities on Thursday, you will be back in the lineup.
The veteran baseman has not played since finishing Monday's game after two at-bats.
Faced with what appeared to be the opening day Phillies lineup, Marcus Stromann produced enough weak contact while pitching three scoreless innings on 64 pitches.
He went into a few deep counts, leading to a high pitch count, but attacked the Phillies three times with one hit and two walks.
“I feel like I was making a pretty good pitch today because I didn't see a lot of barrels,” Stroman said. “It's very difficult to protect it from the barrels in that lineup. I'm a pitcher and an artist and I'm trying to live in the box shadow zone. When I'm running in that area, I'm pretty successful.”
manager Aaron Boone said it was Stroman's best start to spring.
“It's obviously going through a pretty good lineup and a lot of uncomfortable swings are encouraging,” Boone said.
Jasson Domínguez He was 3-for-3 with the RBI double, and his three hits were away from Walker at 108.8 mph, 107.8 mph and 105.7 mph.
Mark Reiter Jr. threw live batting practice on Wednesday at the club's minor league complex.
He was late last week with a back cramp and hasn't pitched into the game since March 6th, but claims he's ready to start the season on time.
Yankees option infielder Jorvitvivas after Wednesday night's match To Triple A Scranton/Wilkes Barre.
