Tanaka finds form, Yanks beat Cards 4-3 for 5th straight win

The Yankees won, 3-2; anyone who's been looking for a reason to gawk at old Nolan Ryan numbers also won. "But in the beginning, it seems much more alarming". Matt Carpenter's first inning two run homer gave the Redbirds the early 2-0 lead.

Thames' third home run of the season capped Milwaukee's four-run sixth inning. Tanaka was supposed to locate it in the outside corner but he missed it all the way across to the inside corner. He'll pitch Saturday with an extra day of rest. Anyways, after a shaky start, Tanaka later went on to have a solid outing. "He got him. Plain and simple". Against Tampa Bay, he struck out 11 with no walks and one run in 7.2 innings, taking a flawless game into the sixth. The Yankees added another run in the second with an Austin Romine (!) dinger to the right.

After the two-run first, Tanaka went into a vintage groove. Sabathia has pitched well thus far but even in his last game when he allowed three runs on six hits, he struggled with his command (four walks). We saw Tanaka missing spots and unnecessarily overthrowing to get out of jams last time out.

However, he left the game on a very tough spot.

NY got help in scoring twice in the sixth for a 3-0 lead. Tanaka ran out of gas after his pitch count passed 100 in the seventh, but Tyler Clippard was able to pick him up.

"It's just the first week", Sabathia said after his last start. Per Brooks Baseball, he got 3 whiffs from his fastball/sinker, another 3 from his slider and 6 from his splitter. Not the number you'd expect to see from your no. 1 starter but it's a long season - he'll be just fine. Three St. Louis relievers finished, and by the end, every NY batter had fanned.

Chase Headley is off to a great start with the Yankees this season, and is a decent player overall at third base.

"I mean you got Jacoby Ellsbury running on first base, ball's hit you know to the wall, obviously I'm coming up ready to throw", Wong said. Ellsbury saw it right away and sprinted home to score. The Yankees have been nothing short of red hot, and they will look to continue it today in game two. Cardinals legend Pete Kozma has actually made a start at shortstop, but it would appear Ronald Torreyes is in line for most of the playing time right now. They are certainly off to a better start than they were at this time last April. He struck out neither of the batters he faced but he got the job done. Martinez struck out the side in the first inning but issued four walks in the process. Randal Grichuk's RBI double ended Tanaka's night and Clippard entered with runners on second and third but recorded a pair of fly outs.

Martinez was the first pitcher since Randy Johnson in 1993 with at least eight walks and 11 strikeouts in a game. Martinez and St. Louis still trail, 1-0. Fowler grounded out to end the game and give Chapman his third save of the season. But the Yankees held on, 3-2, for their sixth straight victory.

Sabathia does his usual work, and the lineup keeps tearing the cover off of the ball, and this is an easy one in the win column for the Yankees.