CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Yankees had to really like what they saw from rookie left fielder Jasson Dominguez at the start of Thursday’s spring training game against the Phillies.
With most of the big bats working out on the other side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway back in Tampa, Dominguez batted third and dialed up an impressive piece of hitting his first time up.
Batting left against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler with two down and nobody on, Dominguez laid off two pitches that were out of the zone, an outside fastball and high cutter. Wheeler went back to his fastball for the 2-0 offering, left it over the plate and Dominguez barreled it up 96.8 mph for a line-drive single to left.
It was downhill from there.
In addition to striking out and fouling out to catcher in his next two at-bats, Dominguez once again looked like a work-in-progress in his transition from center field to left.
This time, Dominguez didn’t take the best route chasing a first-inning double to left field and a long run to the warning track in the third resulted in a double off the glove at chest level playing the 5 ½ innings of the Yankees and Phillies’ 7-7 tie.
This made it two less-than-impressive games in a row in the field for Dominguez.
“He’s a tremendous athlete,” Yankees starter Carlos Rodon said. “He has all the tools to be an athlete defender. Now that’s something that could take time. Left field’s not exactly the easiest position to play.
“To be an elite outfielder, it takes work. I feel like I have the upmost confidence in that kid because he puts in the work. He has all the ability in the world as well.”
Last Sunday in Tampa, Dominguez ran a bad route on a double to the gap that would have been a tough play to make and he lost a ball in the sun playing the early innings of the Yankees’ 4-0 loss to the Tigers.
Dominguez needs to prove he can handle the position before spring training ends to avoid being optioned to Triple-A. The backup plan probably would be moving Cody Bellinger from center to left and Trent Grisham from the bench to center.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone loves Dominguez’ potential and stuck up for him when asked about Thursday’s deep drive to the wall that wasn’t caught.
“That’s about as tough a play as you’re going to have,” Boone said. “I guess it’s a story with every one that JD has, but that one is top-spinning over your head. Bullet. Tough play.
“We’ll look at it. He’s still got work to do obviously, but that’s about as tough a chance as you’re going to have.”
Rodon thought he was showed improvement from his first start to his second despite allowing three runs over 2 2/3 innings in consecutive outings.
“Oh, man, today was a lot better,” Rodon said. “I thought command wise I was pretty good. I know I walked two, but I thought I had a good feel of where the zone was. I threw some breaking balls in the zone.”
In two starts, Rodon has a 10.13 ERA, allowing six runs on nine hits in 5.1 innings with five strikeouts and three walks.
The Phillies took a 2-0 lead in the second when Garrett Stubbs walked on four pitches with one out and Johan Rojas followed with a homer on a 3-2, 95-mph fastball that was over the plate at the top of the zone.
After the Yankees tied the game by scoring two in the third, the Phillies scored another run on Rodon in the bottom of the inning when Brandon Marsh walked with two outs and scored on Edmundo Sosa’s drive to the left-center field wall that went off Dominguez’s glove.
“I thought (Rodon) was good,” Boone said. “I thought good presence with everything. I thought he made a lot of good pitches with everything. He missed with a couple pitches he got hurt on, but I thought overall it was pretty good.”
NOTABLE
-- The Yankees scored four in the eighth to turn a 6-3 deficit into a 7-56 lead. They pulled ahead on a two-out, three-run homer by infielder prospect Alexander Vargas, his second of the spring in five at-bats.
-- The Phillies tied the game in the ninth on Cade Austin, a right-hander who joined the Yankees from the minor-league complex for the game. Austin struck out the first two batters, then hit a batter and walked three in a row to force in the tying run.
-- Right-handed Cole Zaffiro, an undrafted prospect out of Wake Forest who is not in big-league training camp, came on to end the game by striking out Phillies 2024 fourth-round pick Carson DeMartini on a bases-loaded, 3-2 pitch. “That was his first professional game,” Boone said. “Pretty cool. I asked him if he was nervous and he said, ‘My legs were shaking.’
-- Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe hit a two-run, game-tying homer in the third inning off Wheeler, who finished second in the NL Cy Young voting last year after going 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA in 32 starts.
-- Aaron Judge is scheduled to see his first game action on Saturday. DJ LeMahieu will play his first game on Saturday or Monday.
-- Second baseman prospect Jorbit Vivas is “getting close” to playing his first spring training game after showing up to camp with a sore throwing shoulder, Boone said. His first game might be this weekend or early next week.
LOOKING AHEAD
Friday: Blue Jays at Yankees in Tampa, 6:35 p.m. TBA vs. RHP Gerrit Cole (spring debut)
Saturday: Astros at Yankees in Tampa, 1:05 p.m., YES. TBA vs. Cam Schlittler (0-0, 0.00).
Sunday: Yankees at Braves in North Port, Fla., 1:05 p.m. TBA vs. Marcus Stroman (1-0, 0.00).
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.