New York Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole threw against outside competition for the first time since the 2024 World Series on Wednesday when he opposed the visiting Boston Red Sox in a spring training game in Tampa.
Cole, who had Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2025 season, threw 10 pitches to four Boston reserves and minor leaguers in a scoreless first inning.
The Yankees scored an unearned run in the eighth inning and defeated the Red Sox 1-0. New York managed only one hit off three Boston pitchers.
Cole, who averaged nearly 97 mph on his fastball, allowed a lead-off bunt single and subsequent stolen base to Braiden Ward. But Ward was thrown out trying to steal third, so a Jason Delay single to left was harmless.
Boston starter Connelly Early was extremely impressive, fanning seven Yankees and only allowing one hit and two walks in five innings. Early lowered his ERA to 1.59 in this exhibition season, but the young lefty is expected to begin the season in Triple-A Worcester.
Cardinals 4, Astros 1
Minor leaguers Tai Peete and Ramon Mendoza hit home runs for host St. Louis in the bottom of the eighth to break a 1-1 tie with Houston in Jupiter, Fla.
Peete gave the Cards a 2-1 lead and Mendoza’s long ball plated two runs. Brody Moore staked St. Louis to a 1-0 lead in the third with an RBI double. Reliever Kyle Leahy got the start and threw five innings of three-hit scoreless baseball, walking one and striking out six.
The Astros’ only run came across in the sixth on an RBI groundout by Shay Whitcomb. J.P. France got the start and permitted one run on three hits with four strikeouts in four innings.
Braves 3, Phillies 2
Atlanta pushed across three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and rallied past visiting Philadelphia in North Port, Fla.
Michael Harris II and Luke Williams drove in runs with a single and sacrifice fly, but the Phillies aided the cause with two errors in the inning. Right-hander Didier Fuentes, 20, a 2025 mid-season call-up for Atlanta, threw four scoreless relief innings and fanned eight batters, including all three in the eighth.
Right-hander Andrew Painter, one of the Phillies’ top pitching prospects, gave up only one hit and one walk, while fanning three in four scoreless innings as the starter. Dylan Moore drove in both runs with a bases-loaded walk in the first and an RBI single in the fifth.
Orioles 3, Blue Jays 2
Ryan Mountcastle and Blaze Alexander drove in first-inning runs with singles as Baltimore edged host Toronto in Dunedin, Fla.
Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman each collected two hits and Jeremiah Jackson homered in the fourth. Versatile right-hander Albert Suarez started and fanned five in four innings, permitting one run on three hits and two walks.
The Blue Jays’ Addison Barger hit his third homer of the spring, a solo shot in the second. Reliever Louis Varland fanned three of the four Orioles he faced in the fifth and sixth innings.
