Agencies/New York


Heisman Trophy and national college football championship winner Jameis Winston of Florida State took a swing at playing against the New York Yankees on Tuesday.
Winston, a member of the Seminoles baseball team, hit a broken-bat groundout to second base against right-hander Shane Greene at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, in the sixth inning and struck out looking against Bryan Mitchell in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ first spring training game.
The quarterback, who is Florida State’s baseball closer, came into the game as a fifth-inning defensive replacement. He also is a relief pitcher.
“It was fun, man, but I think most of them Florida State fans were Yankees fans, they just had on garnet and gold,” said Winston, who has said that the Yankees are his favorite team.
“I gotta get better with the bat. I’ve been struggling this spring, but that’s baseball, man. When you get back in the rhythm, you can go 0-for-2 with two strikeouts, but I only got one, so that’s the only positive I got out of the day.”
    
Sizemore in Red Sox starting line-up
Outfielder Grady Sizemore, who has not seen action in a major league game since Sept. 22, 2011, will be in the Boston Red Sox’s starting lineup for one of the team’s split-squad games on Thursday.
Sizemore is making encouraging progress this spring in Fort Myers, Florida to be able to start against either Northeastern University or Boston College. The 31-year-old Sizemore’s career has been derailed by knee and back injuries in recent years. He also missed parts of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.
Sizemore hit .224 with 10 home runs and 32 RBIs in 268 at-bats in 2011 for the Cleveland Indians. In eight seasons with the Indians, he hit .269 with 139 homers and 458 RBIs.
    
Giants to hand the ball to Bumgarner
The San Francisco Giants will hand the ball to left-hander Madison Bumgarner for an Opening-Day start on March 31 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Giants announced that Bumgarner would start the opener for the first time in his career. He joins three others Giants pitchers in the rotation—Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Tim Hudson—who have started the first game of the season. The 24-year-old Bumgarner finished last season with a 13-9 record and a 2.77 ERA and had 199 strikeouts in 201 1/3 innings.  He was named to the All-Star team and finished ninth in the National League Cy Young Award voting.