Saturday, April 15, 2017

Yanks Celebrate Number 42 With 6th Straight

On the 70th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier; commemorated by everyone wearing jersey number 42, the Yankees and Cardinals squared off in game two of their three-game set. CC Sabathia took the mound for New York today and was just awesome, keeping hitters off balance all afternoon with his newfound control of his offspeed stuff. Contrastly, Carlos Martinez got the start for St. Louis and was kind of "all or nothing" this afternoon, striking out double digit Yankees while also walking a small village. Tremendous pitching for New York and shotty defense and pitching for St. Louis led to a game two win for the boys in pinstripes on a beautiful afternoon in the Bronx.

After walking one and striking out 11 and his first start, Carlos Martinez really struggled in the first inning as he allowed a very unusual and early lead. Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks started the frame with back to back walks, advancing to second and third on a passed ball by catcher Yadier Molina. During Chris Carter's at bat, Martinez chucked a wild pitch that made it to the backstop, allowing Gardner to score from third to give the Yankees a one run advantage.

Martinez's roller coaster of an outing continued on into the sixth, and  those struggles led to more Yankee runs and the end of his afternoon. Ronald Torreyes started off the sixth with just the third Yankee hit of the day: a fly ball to left field that Toe turn into a hustle double. Aaron Hicks then hit a one out come backer to Martinez who in turn threw it over the head of the first baseman, allowing Torreyes to score and Hicks to advanced to second base. The throwing error came back to bite even harder when Chris Carter lined a single into left that plated Hicks to open their lead up to three. Martinez was then lifted for left-hander Brett Cecil, departing with one of the most unusual stat lines you will ever see: 5.1 innings pitched, three runs on four hits with eight walks and 11 strikeouts. If that's that doesn't tell you anything else, it should say that there was a lot of no contact throughout the Yankee lineup today.

Although Sabathia gave up an eighth inning solo homerun to Jedd Gyorko to make it 3-1, the big lefty showed that he has plenty left in the tank with his utterly outstanding outing this afternoon. After the long ball, Sabathia was lifted for Adam Warren, marching towards the dugout to a well deserved standing ovation. C. C.'s final line was a thing of beauty, tossing 7.1 innings of three hit baseball, allowing just one run with one walk and six strikeouts.

Another really cool statistic to take away from today is that Adam Warren has faced 20 batters this season and has retired all 20 of them, needing to face and retire seven more to record a season-long perfect game.With Chapman getting the day off, Tyler Clippard took over for Warren in the ninth. Clippard definitely made things interesting by allowing a one out solo homerun to Stephen Piscotty, a deep blast to left that inched the Cardinals back closer at 3-2. After allowing an infield single and a walk, Clippard got Randall Grichuk to strike out to end the game and extend the Yankees winning streak to six.

For the second series in a row, Yankee fans will be looking for their brooms in the hopes of seeing a sweep of the Cardinals on Easter Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 8:08 PM/ESP and can be seen on ESPN.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)