Greetings from Tampa

Good evening fanatics! Tonight's post comes to you live from the Sunshine State and city of Tampa, where I'm gearing up to catch the Yankees last Spring Training game; their second consecutive match-up against the Mets. Tomorrow's game will be the first time the Mets have visited Steinbrenner Field since 1996. I was lucky enough to get myself down here before the season ended, and continue my tradition of catching at least one ST game a year. Word is that Andy Pettitte may pitch tomorrow, and if he does, I will be one happy girl.

Hopefully, the Yankees will have more luck tomorrow than they did this afternoon. They lost 7-6 on a ninth inning home run by Ike Davis, that would put the Mets up for good. Ivan Nova struggled again in his outing, giving up five runs and eight hits in just 2.2 innings.

The good news from today's game was the performance by Nick Swisher. He went 2-for-3 today homering off of Mike Pelfrey in the fourth, and then doubled to start a Yankee rally in the sixth. Today's homer was his second in three days and he's driven in a run in each game since his return from a groin injury on Sunday.

Tomorrow, Freddy Garcia will get his final start of ST. I know that I'm coming obscenely late with this news, but I just wanted to make sure that Bomber Boulevard noted that Garcia has indeed won the fifth spot in the rotation. Some would say that he got in on a technicality, as Michael Pineda has been placed on the disabled list, but I would disagree. Garcia truly earned his spot, having a good ST overall, and it would have been interesting to see what Joe Girardi would have done, had Pineda not been diagnosed with shoulder soreness. Convenient for Girardi wasn't it, but nonetheless, it all worked out and I'm sure he's relieved to not have had to relegate Nova or Pineda to the pen. Both pitchers suffered mightily during this ST.

I will be posting pics from tomorrow's game on Facebook and Twitter, and will probably present you all with a late-night post, depending on how tired I may be once I get back home tomorrow night. And please, keep your fingers crossed on Andy pitching in tomorrow's game.

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper