TAMPA, FLA — The Yankees took on the Orioles in an exhibition game on Friday night. It was one of their last games in Grapefruit League play before the team heads to Arizona for three days before the start of the regular season. The Yankees took this one 3-1 over the O’s to improve to 17-10 in Grapefruit League play.
Luis Gil, who struggled for most of spring training, got the start for the Yankees today.
Notes and Observations
— Gil was looking for a bounce-back start. He got it. The velocity on all of his pitches was up in the outing, and his release point was higher today than it was in his last outing.
The higher release point helps to create more deception on the pitches and fool the batter. It certainly worked.
.@ChrisKirschner reported yesterday (with a video) that Luis Gil is working on his release point. According to baseball sevant, he is using his new release point in his outing today. https://t.co/YomWwBqzE2 pic.twitter.com/m7faxhxHpp
— Matthew Nethercott (@bymnethercott) March 20, 2026
The Yankees have not made their final roster decisions yet, but Gil just made their decision tougher for the team about whether to send him down.
— The Yankees did not record a hit till the fifth inning with a hustle double off the bat of Jazz Chisholm Jr. Chisholm’s hitting in a spring training game is good to see in general. He was stranded on a strikeout by McMahon.
— Aaron Judge struck out three times in his return to spring action. He looked a tick off with his swings. He will get some good game action this week to get his rhythm back, so this should not be a concern.
— The Yankees finally broke through against the Orioles pitching in the bottom of the eighth inning with four straight hits and two runs scored, notably hits from Ryan McMahon and Oswaldo Cabrera to open the inning.
— The bullpen combination of David Bednar, Tim Hill, and Paul Blackburn kept the Orioles hitters scoreless. Bednar specifically was nasty today, given the workload he is coming off of from the World Baseball Classic.
Roster Moves
The team announced a slew of roster moves, most notably optioning Jasson Dominguez to AAA Scranton Wilkes-Barre. Dominguez had a very good spring for the Yankees, but he does not have a position to get reps on the MLB roster as the Yankees would like him to have.
Here is the full slate of roster moves the Yankees announced prior to the game:
Prior to tonight’s game, the Yankees made the following roster moves:
•Reassigned C Ali Sánchez, C Payton Henry and OF Kenedy Corona to minor league camp.
•Optioned RHP Kervin Castro, RHP Yerry de los Santos and OF Jasson Domínguez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) March 20, 2026
Highlights
Some highlights from Luis Gil’s outing today
(Via @Yankees) pic.twitter.com/lggEoQNQSo
— The 4 to the 7 Podcast (@4tothe7pod) March 20, 2026
WLADO COMES THROUGH pic.twitter.com/XxtRXpqLL6
— The 4 to the 7 Podcast (@4tothe7pod) March 21, 2026
Whats Next
The Yankees will head to Lakeland to take on the Detroit Tigers tomorrow. Cam Schlittler will get the start for the Yankees. The game will be televised on the Gotham Sports App and MLB.TV as the Free Game of the day.