LDN - Sports

Yankees beat Cardinals for seventh straight win

[April 17, 2017] NEW YORK -- The first two weeks of Greg Bird's season hardly went according to plan.

The outs accumulated and the batting average tumbled. Still, the New York Yankees never removed him from the lineup, electing to let the young first baseman work his way out of a slump that gets significantly magnified in April as opposed to the middle of the summer.

Bird justified New York's faith in him Sunday night, when he highlighted his first career three-hit game by ending a 0-for-20 skid with a mammoth home run off Adam Wainwright with one out in the bottom of the second in a 9-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

"It felt good," Bird said after the Yankees completed a three-game series sweep.

A relief?

"Whatever you want to call it, it's just nice to be back on the board and back contributing to the team really," Bird said.

After spending the past 24 hours talking about how slumps are magnified this early in the season, Bird carried a .038 average when he stepped in against Wainwright in a 1-1 game with Aaron Judge on third.

Judge was there because a fan touched his apparent home run to right-center field. Judge, however, hustled to third.

Bird ensured that all Judge needed to do was trot home when he got ahold of a first-pitch sinker from Wainwright (0-3). The ball went 429 feet and landed about halfway up the right-center-field bleachers, staking the Yankees to a 3-1 lead.

"I made a good pitch," Wainwright said of the pitch to Bird. "I made exactly the same pitch I was trying to throw. I threw a sinker that started off the plate and came back in. Usually most hitters will take that. He's been grinding, trying to find hits, and tonight he kind of broke out of that."

Bird ended the night with a .138 average and nearly hit another home run in the sixth. After doubling off Wainwright in the fourth, Bird hooked a breaking ball foul before getting a walk.

Bird then capped his big night with a two-run double off Miguel Socolovich during a five-run eighth.

"He had a great night," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He had a great spring training (and) a really good 2015. He got off to a slow start and he's been frustrated, rightfully so. But I thought he swung the bat great tonight, and that's kind of what we saw in spring training."

Bird's big night helped the Yankees (8-4) get their seventh straight win and improve to 6-0 at home for the first time since 1998.

Judge added an RBI triple ahead of Bird's first home run since Oct. 1, 2015, against Boston. Aaron Hicks hit a solo home run off Wainwright add had a sacrifice fly.

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Yankees first baseman Greg Bird (33) hits a two run home run against the St. Louis Cardinals during the second inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

All of the New York offense helped Michael Pineda (2-1) earn a second consecutive win. Pineda allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings before the Yankees pulled away.

Austin Romine and Ronald Torreyes added two-run doubles in the eighth long after Wainwright was tagged for four runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. Wainwright lost a third straight decision for the third time in his career and the first time since 2012.

Greg Garcia gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead with an RBI single off Pineda in the second. Yadier Molina made it 4-2 with a solo home run in the seventh, and Randal Grichuk drove in a run on an error by Torreyes in the ninth after the game had been decided.

Wainwright's sub-par outing was part of a lost weekend for the Cardinals, who are off to their first 3-9 start since 1988.

"I hope that our team just continues to have high expectations," Wainwright said. "The last thing we need to do is have low expectations. As a pitcher, I can't expect just to grind through four or five innings. That's not good enough, and our team should expect to win every game."

NOTES: A day later, St. Louis manager Mike Matheny was still amazed at RHP Carlos Martinez issuing eight walks, striking out 11 and only allowing three runs. "That was bizarre but it's amazing for him to be that off and for him to be that good," Matheny said. ... New York DH Matt Holliday (lower back tightness) missed his second straight game. Manager Joe Girardi said he expects Holliday to return Monday against the Chicago White Sox. ... Cardinals LHP Tyler Lyons (right knee) will make a third rehab start Monday for Triple-A Memphis. ... New York pitchers participated in batting practice in preparation for next week's visit to Pittsburgh.

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