Bailey Falter, Bubba Chandler roughed up as Yankees clobber Pirates
In their 10th game of spring training Monday evening, the Pittsburgh Pirates fell 12-3 to the New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla.
New York’s Max Fried, who signed an eight-year, $218 million deal with the club during the offseason, and Bailey Falter started, with both pitchers making their 2025 spring training debuts.
Falter allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts, departing after 2 2/3 innings, while Fried gave up two runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Top Pirates (6-4) prospect Bubba Chandler had a rough 1/3 inning in the fifth, allowing four runs on two hits with two walks, a wild pitch and a strikeout before being pulled.
Chandler (0-1, 19.29 ERA) was charged with the loss Monday.
The Yankees got on the board in the second, when a broken-bat, bases-loaded single by Dominic Smith scored a pair, putting New York up 2-0.
Falter had walked a pair, setting up Smith’s RBI hit.
A passed ball by catcher Joey Bart allowed the Yankees to go up 3-0 before Falter got out of the inning.
However, Bart tied things up in the top of the third, crushing a three-run homer off new Yankees pitcher Ryan Anderson to score Tommy Pham, who walked, and Nick Yorke, who doubled.
Two of the three runs were charged to Fried.
New York increased its lead to 6-3 in the fifth with Chandler on the hill and added one more run against Mike Walsh.
In the seventh, the Yankees went up 9-3 courtesy of an RBI single by J.C. Escarra off Hunter Barco.
Barco stayed on in the eighth and surrendered two homers to Andrew Velazquez and George Lombard Jr., putting New York up 12-3.
Bart had two of the Pirates’ three total hits.
Note: Pirates pitcher Andrew Heaney, whom the team signed to a one-year, $5.25 million deal in late February, is set to make his spring training debut Tuesday vs. Boston. Starting for the Red Sox will be Quinn Priester, the 18th overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft by the Pirates, who was traded to Boston last July for Yorke.
Justin Guerriero is a TribLive reporter covering the Penguins, Pirates and college sports. A Pittsburgh native, he is a Central Catholic and University of Colorado graduate. He joined the Trib in 2022 after covering the Colorado Buffaloes for Rivals and freelancing for the Denver Post. He can be reached at jguerriero@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.