Red Sox 4, Yankees 5: Sox lose to split-squad Yankees

To start off, sorry about missing the recap for yesterday’s game. I caught a night shift at the day (or, night, I guess) job and totally forgot to write it up when I got home. Mea culpa. If you missed the box score, the Sox lost 7-2. Brian Johnson had a rough day, as did Chander Shepherd. Chris Young, Mitch Moreland and Xander Bogaerts had two hits apiece. Now, to Tuesday’s game, which was against a Yankees team that had split squads today and sent mostly minor leaguers to Fort Myers.

Kyle Kendrick makes his Red Sox debut

The Red Sox signed Kyle Kendrick (who I thought was Kyle Drabek until about a week ago) in January to shore up their rotation depth. If all goes according to plan, we won’t see him much if at all in Boston this year, but he’s a nice security blanket in case of injury and a lack of steps forward from Brian Johnson, Henry Owens and/or Roenis Elias. He put on the Boston uniform for the first time on Tuesday, and had a solid outing. His one mistake came in the first inning when he left a pitch up in the zone to New York’s young first baseman Greg Bird, who hit it yard. It was the first of two dingers for Bird. Other than that, Kendrick allowed two singles (both on line drives, according to MLB.com) and struck out four in three innings.

Mostly inconsequential relievers with mostly inconsequential performances

Behind Kendrick on the mound for the Red Sox on Tuesday was a crew of pitchers who will likely spend the year in the minors. The one sure major-leaguer who pitched was Robbie Ross, who pitched a shutout inning with one walk. Behind him were Edgar Olmos, Austin Maddox, Jamie Callahan, Taylor Grover and Luis Ysla. All but the last two gave up one run. Olmos and Ysla are probably the only pitchers here with a shot at making the majors this year, and even they are no sure thing. In fact, they are likely fighting for position on the left-handed reliever depth chart behind Ross, Fernando Abad and Robby Scott.

Pablo Sandoval, Sam Travis shine for the offense

Sandoval is almost certainly the most interesting player on Boston’s roster this season, as any kind of performance is possible for the third baseman. We know spring training performance is mostly meaningless, but with players like this it’s hard not to hang on every move. He put together a good day against the Yankees, going 2-3 with a single and a double. He tacked on a run and an RBI, too. New York certainly wasn’t sending out their best, but any good performance is nice to see. Travis continues to impress early on in spring, hitting his third home run. This one was launched to left field off a mistake pitch from prospect Justus Sheffield. For the second year in a row, he’s making a name for himself in major-league camp. Let’s hope he can stay healthy this year.