S.T. Game 28. Afternoon (home) game of split squad. Volpe homers, Cole sharp, Abreu not. Yanks lose, 6-4.

The Yanks had split squad games, one at home in the afternoon and one on the road at night.

This is the afternoon game. Anthony Volpe (more on him in a bit) homered, and Gerrit Cole was in midseason form, but Albert Abreu blew a Yankees lead late and the Yanks (10-16-2 in spring training) lost to the Twins, 6-4.

Meanwhile it was reported that Carlos Rodon should be ready in early May. He will miss the first month of the season.

The race for the SS job may come down to the last day, but as far as I’m concerned, I’d go with Volpe. A few tidbits, most if not all by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

Volpe, if he is the opening day starter, would be the youngest opening day starter since Derek Jeter in 1996.

He would be making his MLB debut. Since 1951, the only Yankees to make their MLB debut on opening day have been Mickey Mantle in 1951, Jerry Lumpe in 1956 and Hideki Matsui in 2003.

The last Yankee players who had rookie qualification to be in the Opening Day lineup were Aaron Judge in 2017 and Brett Gardner in 2009.

Aaron Judge was in LF and threw out a runner at second today. I don’t think CF or LF would be a problem for him.

Volpe 1 for 4, HR, 2 RBI #1 prospect. Will be interesting to see if he is opening day SS. I think he should be.
Willie Calhoun 1 for 4. Will be interesting to see if he makes the team.
Jose Trevino 2 for 3.
Estevan Florial 1 for 2, 2 RBI.

Those are all five of the Yankees’ hits. They were 1 for 10 w/RISP.

Cole 5 2/3 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 0 W, 3 K.
Cordero (H) 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K. Will he make the bullpen?
Abreu (BS, L) 1 1/3 IP, 5 R, 4 H, 1 W, 0 K. Gave up 2 HR.
M. Gomez 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.

Game 130. Yanks lose, 5-2.

The Yanks’ five-game winning streak was snapped by Detroit last night, 5-2.

Jacoby Ellsbury’s two solo HR (13) accounted for both Yankees’ runs. Believe it or not, it is Ellsbury who leads the Yanks in RBI. Didn’t see that coming when the Yanks signed him, did you?

Brandon McCarthy went 6 1/3, 5 R, 9 H, 2 walks and 5 K. He drops to an overall record of 8-13,  4.13. As a Yankee he is 5-3,  2.47.

Esmiel Rogers went 1 2/3, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks, 3 K. Overall ERA 5.09.

Derek Jeter had two hits to raise his career total to 3442.

The loss dropped the Yanks 7 behind Baltimore in the AL East and 3 1/2 out of the final wild card spot. There are 32 games to go. The Yanks are 68-62. If 90 wins are what it will take to get that last wild card spot, the Yanks would have to go 22-10 to get there.

One-time Yankee backup infielder Jerry Lumpe died Aug. 16 at the age of 81. He was with the Yanks 1956-1959, then played for the KC A’s 1959-1963 and the Detroit Tigers 1964-1967. He was an All-Star in 1964 and finished 25th in the 1962 MVP voting. His 162 g. average was .268-6-54, OPS+ 87. He was 6 for 26 in two WS, 1957 and 1958 and was part of the 1956 and 1958 WS Champ Yanks as well as the 1957 AL Champs. He mostly played 2B, but also played SS and 3B.