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TAMPA, Fla – Corey Kluber overcame occasional madness, allowing two runs and four hits in four innings in his second start of the spring, and the New York Yankees beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-5 on Saturday.
Kluber is a two-time Cy Young Award winner with his third team in three years. He has only pitched one official inning since being hit in the right forearm by a comeback in May 2019 and tearing a muscle in his right shoulder on his Texas debut in last july.
Kluber hit two batters, threw a wild pitch and gave Troy Stokes Jr. a third inning solo homer on Saturday. He withdrew two of them during a sortie in which the Pirates fell in order only once.
“Some pitches, probably, could have been located a little better, be a little sharper,” Kluber said. “The home run, the first pitch, left him a little too above the plate. Definitely things to work on. Fine-tune the location, things like that.
“I was happy with the way I felt physically.”
The right-hander gave up a brace and hit a batter in the first inning, but came out of the jam with a double play. After a perfect second, Kluber left the Stokes homerun and then avoided further damage while working on a two-on-one situation.
Kluber, who turns 35 in April, pulled out three strikeouts in two perfect innings in his other start on March 3 against Toronto. He had a live batting workout five days later.
After losing to the eventual American League champion Tampa Bay Rays in a five-game series last year, the Yankees allowed Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton and JA Happ to become free agents. They signed a one-year, $ 11 million deal with Kluber and acquired Jameson Taillon of Pittsburgh for four prospects.
“He looks like him,” said Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu. “The ball is moving everywhere.”
New York’s planned rotation also includes ace Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery. Deivi Garcia and Domingo German are among the candidates for the starting fifth place.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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