Greg Bird Leads Yankees To 9-3 Sweep Of Cardinals For Seventh Straight Win; Marlins Beat Mets 4-2

Greg Bird hit a two-run homer to burst out of his 0-for-20 hitless slump,, and Michael Pineda pitched seven strong innings to propel the New York Yankees to a 9-3 home victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night.

Greg Bird, Yankees Beat Cardinals 9-3 For Series Sweep

With the win, New York closed a three-game series sweep and pushed their winning streak to seven games. The Yankees (8-4, 2nd in American League East) have begun their season 6-0 at home for the first time since 1998.

Bird, who had one hit in 30 plate appearances entering Sunday night, reached base four times, including on a second-inning home run that put New York up 3-1.

“It’s just nice to be back on the board and back to contributing to the team,” Bird said.

Bird’s homer was one of ten hits that Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright (0-3, 7.24) allowed. The 35-year-old right-hander also surrendered four runs in 4 2/3 innings.

“Tonight, I fully expected to go nine innings,” said Wainwright, who was chased in the fifth. “I felt great on the mound. After the first inning, especially, I knew I was going to be locked in and it just didn’t work out.”

The Cardinals have now lost six of seven and have dropped to 3-9, the worst record in the National League and their poorest start since 1988.

“It’s an incredibly frustrating start to the season,” Wainwright said after his first career outing against the Yankees. “I know Cardinal Nation is ready for me to get my act together, and I am, too.”

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny agrees this slump is unlike anything the team has seen in a while.

“When we’re playing really clean and we’re just getting outplayed, that’s one thing,” Matheny said. “We’ve had just a stretch here of some games where mistakes happen and they get capitalized on. We know there’s a whole different level of baseball we have in us. Since April started, we haven’t really seen that yet.”

Pineda, (2-1) meanwhile, allowed two runs and struck out six over seven innings in his second consecutive dominant outing (the first one being last Monday). The righty retired the first 20 batters he faced during the Yankees’ home opener and struck out 11 over 7 2/3 innings for an 8-1 win against Tampa Bay.

On Sunday, Pineda retired 12 of 13 batters during a mid-game stretch. Yadier Molina ended that burst with a solo leadoff homer in the seventh that cut New York’s lead to 4-2, but Pineda kept his cool and retired the next three batters.

“After the second inning, I got more energy,” Pineda said. “I’m working so hard to be consistent every five days.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi agrees it’s been difficult for the Dominican starter to gain traction.

“It’s important because you want him to keep going, and get some momentum,” Girardi said . “He had a hard time doing that last year.”

The Yankees extended their lead with five runs in the eighth, including two-run doubles from Austin Romine and Ronald Torreyes, both of which came off St. Louis reliever Miguel Socolovich. By then, the game was out of reach.

Yankees third baseman Chase Headley, who reached safely every time, singled to lead off the second, and teammate Aaron Judge smacked a drive to deep right-center, where a fan reached out right next to the auxiliary scoreboard in the hopes of catching a home run. The ball fell out of the man’s mitt and back into play, which prompted the umpires to call fan interference.

After a nearly three-minute replay review, the ruling stood and Judge stayed at third with an RBI triple.

“I think that was my first career triple,” Judge said. “So I don’t mind it.”

On Wainwright’s following pitch, Bird smacked the ball over the right-field wall and into the high bleachers for his first homer since October 1, 2015 against Boston. The 24-year-old first baseman missed last season while recovering from shoulder surgery after recording 11 homers in 46 games as a rookie in 2015.

The Yankees, who are missing injured catcher Gary Sanchez, have won their first six home games for the first time since opening 7-0 in the Bronx in 1988.

Matt Carpenter was struck in the bare hand by Aaron Hicks’ first-inning groundout and seemed to hurt the nail on his right ring finger. A trainer tended to the St. Louis first baseman, who initially had blood running all over his hand. Carpenter remained in the game.

Yankees designated hitter Matt Holliday sat out for the second straight day against his former team with a stiff lower back. Girardi said he would be surprised if Holliday’s wasn’t ready to play on Monday.

The Cardinals next begin a three-game home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday. Right-hander Lance Lynn (0-1, 5.23 ERA) will face Pittsburgh righty Ivan Nova (1-1, 2.25) at 7:08 pm EST.

The Yankees, meanwhile, will start a three-game home-stand against the Chicago White Sox on Monday night at 7:05 pm EST. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery will make his second season and career start for New York, while lefty Derek Holland (1-1, 1.50 ERA) will take the mound for the White Sox.

Marlins beat Mets 4-2 With Walk-off

The Miami Marlins defeated the New York Mets (7-6) 4-2 at home on Sunday night thanks to a walk-off two-out, two-run homer from shortstop J.T. Riddle off Addison Reed in the ninth inning. The hit marked 25-year-old Riddle’s first career home run in the majors. The blast came after the Marlins lost a replay challenge that Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud blocked the plate to stop Marcell Ozuna from scoring.

“It’s crazy,” said Riddle, who was called up last Sunday after shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria went on the disabled list. “It’s funny how baseball works sometimes. My first hit is a check-swing bouncer off the ground, and then to come up in a situation like that. To do that, it’s hard to explain.”

The Marlins (7-5) bounced back to win the four-game series 3-1, after losing to the Mets 9-8 in 16 innings in Miami in Thursday’s opener.

Miami held a two-run lead in the ninth before the Mets rallied with two outs off David Phelps, who was earning the save opportunity because A.J. Ramos was unavailable. With two outs, however, shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera smacked a two-run single to center.

Ozuna, who contributed an RBI double in the sixth inning, made an incredible, wall-crawling catch in the fifth to deny Wilmer Flores of extra bases.

Mets righty Matt Harvey allowed two runs (one earned) on seven hits and struck out five in six innings.

“This is a good baseball team,” manager Terry Collins said. “We have issues like everybody else, but we’re trying to mesh a pitching staff we’ve got to be careful of and a bullpen we’re going to be careful of. We’re going to be OK.”

The Mets have lost three straight after a five-game winning streak.

After an off-day Monday, the Mets next return home for a nine-game home series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves. First up is a three-game series against the Phillies, with Zack Wheeler facing off against another righty, Zach Eflin, in Tuesday night’s opener at 7:10 pm EST.

The Marlins, meanwhile, will begin a nine-game road trip on Monday night at 10:10 pm EST in Seattle. Right-hander Tom Koehler (0-0, 3.27) will start for Miami, while lefty Ariel Miranda (0-1, 5.06) will take the mound for the Mariners.

The three-game series will feature the return of Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki to Safeco Field.

NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 16: Greg Bird #33 of the New York Yankees hits a two run home run as Yadier Molina #4 of the St. Louis Cardinals defends on April 16, 2017 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)