TAMPA, Fla. -- A Wednesday night that started with the anticipation of Masahiro Tanaka versus Bryce Harper ended in disappointment all around, as the Yankees and Phillies ended up playing to a 5-5 tie in a game that took more than three-and-a-half hours under the lights at Steinbrenner Field.
The Yankees struck first, notching single runs in each of the first two innings. In the first, singles by Brett Gardner and Giancarlo Stanton led to an RBI infield single by Luke Voit, but the Phillies prevented any further damage by ending the inning with a play at the plate, with Sean Rodriguez throwing out Stanton as he tried to score on what was scored a single by Gary Sanchez.
After Tanaka escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the second, the Yankees immediately gave him another run in the bottom of the frame, as Greg Bird walked, Gio Urshela singled Bird to third, and Gardner drove Bird in with a sac fly to make it 2-0.
The Phillies would pounce in the fourth, though, as J.T. Realmuto opened the frame with a solo homer off Tanaka, and Maikel Franco followed with a single. Tanaka got the next two outs before departing, but Scott Kingery greeted Chad Green by smacking a two-run homer to right-center to make it 3-2 Philly.
The Phillies then added another in the fifth off Adam Ottavino, who loaded the bases ahead of a two-out RBI single by Aaron Altherr - but in a case of turnabout being fair play, Aaron Judge threw out Rhys Hoskins trying to score a second run, limiting further damage and ending the inning.
The Yankees' comeback began an inning-plus later, as Giancarlo Stanton led off the sixth by launching a mammoth solo shot to left-center to make it 4-3, and after the Bombers loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks and a single, they scored a pair of runs (and kept the bases loaded) on an Urshela RBI single and a Wade walk to re-take a 5-4 lead.
This time, Philly was able to limit the damage, as Jose Alvarez got Billy Burns to pop out and Judge to fly out to end the inning, and they would make their own comeback in the ninth; two singles, a walk, and a wild pitch from lefty Philip Diehl turned the lead into a tie, but after another walk loaded the bases with one out, Diehl escaped by getting an infield force out and a fly out to send it to the bottom of the ninth.
The Yankees looked to have one more rally in their bones, but it fell just short. Two walks and a sac bunt put runners on second and third with one out in the ninth, but after Pedro Beato struck out L.J. Mazzilli to set up the game's final showdown, Beato got Ryan Lavarnway to fly out to end the inning, and both managers decided to end the game without playing an extra frame.
On the mound, Tanaka was charged with two runs on six hits and notched six strikeouts in his 3 2/3 innings, and Chad Green allowed the homer and notched a strikeout against the two batters he faced. Ottavino was tabbed with one run on two hits (with one walk and one strikeout) in his inning, Tommy Kahnle pitched a perfect sixth with one K, Drew Hutchison allowed one hit and struck out three in two scoreless, and Diehl was charged with one run on two hits, two walks, and the wild pitch in the ninth.
At the plate, Stanton and Urshela both went 2-for-3, notching the only two multi-hit games within the Yankees' 12-hit attack. Luke Voit, Greg Bird, and Gary Sanchez all went 1-for-2 with a walk, and Wade was 1-for-3 with a walk while playing the entire game.
Of note for the Phillies, ex-Yankee Andrew McCutchen was 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts, and Bryce Harper made the trip across the causeway but left still searching for his first Phillies hit; he grounded out and struck out in his first two at-bats, and in the fifth, he reached on a catcher's interference and scored on Altherr's single before being replaced by another former Yankee, Shane Robinson.
The tie leaves the Yankees at 9-6-3 with one rainout so far this spring, and they have 13 exhibition games remaining. The next comes Thursday afternoon, when they will hit the road to face the Blue Jays in a 1:07 p.m. start in Dunedin.