Yanks win their first replay challenge this spring

By Maureen Mullen / Special to MLB.com

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The Yankees won their first replay challenge of the spring during the third inning of Saturday's 5-4 win over the Twins. With Aaron Hicks on first andPedro Florimon facing Masahiro Tanaka, Florimon struck out looking with Hicks breaking for second. The throw from catcher Francisco Cervelli to second baseman Dean Anna was in time, but it appeared Hicks evaded the tag.

Hicks was initially called safe on the play, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi challenged the ruling. As Girardi walked slowly out of the dugout -- "very slowly compared to what I usually do," he said later -- to talk with second-base umpire Marvin Hudson, Yankees baseball operations assistant Brett Weber was watching the replays on TV. Weber relayed his thoughts on the play to bench coach Tony Pena, who signaled to Girardi to challenge the call.

Hudson and home-plate umpire Jeff Kellogg listened on headsets that were brought to the field by a member of the TV production crew, as the play was reviewed in a production truck close to the field.

After just 44 seconds, the ruling was reversed -- marking the first time this spring the Yankees were successful on a challenge.

"It feels pretty good, actually," Girardi said. "The great thing about it is, no one wants to be wrong -- whether it's me or them. I can remember as a player complaining about strikes and balls, and I [would] go watch it and ... say, 'You know what, I was wrong.' It's just the heat of the moment, everyone has to make a quick decision. There's been a lot of times I've argued calls [where] I thought for sure I was right, and I was wrong. But now we have replay to reassure everyone."

Despite some glitches in the system this spring, Girardi is an advocate.

"I haven't lost faith in the system," he said. "I actually think it's going to work good. I do. There'll be some glitches once in a while, and some things might take a little bit longer than they want. But I actually think it's going to work good. It took 45 seconds or whatever from the time I asked. They don't have all the replays that they're going to have during the season, so it was pretty quick."

Because he was successful, Girardi retained the challenge.

Worth noting:

• Girardi said he is still hopeful of getting center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury back in the lineup on Tuesday after the team's off-day on Monday. Ellsbury, whom Girardi said "had a good day" on Saturday, has been out since March 14 with a strained right calf.

• Cervelli was hit with a couple of nasty foul balls behind the plate on Saturday. But he just shook off their effects.

"It's OK," he said. "That's normal. That's a catcher's job -- get beat up sometimes."

• The bullpen had a solid day in relief of Tanaka during Saturday's 5-4 win over Minnesota. Shane Greene pitched a perfect inning, recording three strikeouts. Right-hander Yoshinori Tateyamaearned a save, striking out three in the ninth. But he also gave up a home run to Eduardo Escobar.

In all, Yankees pitchers recorded 13 strikeouts.

• Zoilo Almonte started in right field, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. He is 13-for-32 (.406) this spring, with seven runs scored in 17 games.

• Wheeler started in left field and went 2-for-3 with an RBI. In 20 spring games, he is 11-for-32 (.344).

• There were 9,298 in attendance for Saturday's game, a new Hammond Stadium record. The previous record was 9,256 -- set on March 13 against the Red Sox. The record before that (8,366) was set exactly one year ago -- March 22, 2013 -- also against the Yankees.

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