NEW YORK _ He can be Good Big Mike one game and Bad Big Mike the next. Or even in the same game. Or inning.
After a Bad Big Mike first start at Tampa Bay, Michael Pineda was Brilliant Big Mike for the Yankees in their home opener last Monday against the Rays. The 6-7 right-hander brought perfection into the seventh inning and ultimately allowed one run, two hits and no walks in 7 2/3 innings, fanning 11 in a command performance.
"It was tremendous," Joe Girardi said before Pineda went out to start Sunday night's game against the Cardinals at Yankee Stadium. "We need him to build on that."
Basically, he did. The Yankees got Good Big Mike for this one, as some of his bad habits showed through, but not enough to detract from a strong outing.
Pineda allowed two runs, six hits and a walk and fanned six in seven innings as the Yankees beat the Cardinals, 9-3, for their seventh straight victory. Sixty-six of his 96 pitches were strikes.
Last season, he finished 6-12 with a 4.82 ERA in 32 starts. Pineda struck out a career-best 207 batters and served up a career-worst 27 homers. Opponents hit .303 in the first two innings and .325 overall with two outs.
In his first start this season, the 28-year-old free agent-to-be had six strikeouts and no walks, but the Rays got him for four runs in the first two innings, including three in the second with two outs. Five of their eight hits against him in 3 2/3 came with two strikes.
"I don't really see Michael's mind wandering," Girardi said. "This man is full of gyrations anyway. You wonder what's going through his mind when he's doing all that anyway. But I don't really see it that he's not focused ... I think he wants to be focused and I think he wants to make a pitch, but sometimes he doesn't."
When he faced the Rays the next time, he did. His total of 17 strikeouts with no walks were the most in Yankees history for a pitcher in his first two starts of the season and tied for the most in AL history.
After retiring the first two St. Louis batters in the first inning Sunday night, sure enough, Pineda found trouble thanks to a walk and a bunt single. But he escaped, getting Matt Adams swinging.
He couldn't escape his two-out problem in the second. Greg Garcia drove in Jedd Gyorko from second, lining a single into left for a 1-0 lead.
Chase Headley led off the bottom of the inning with a single against Adam Wainwright and Aaron Judge followed with a drive toward the fence in right-center. A fan reached out with his glove and dropped the ball, which ultimately was ruled an RBI triple after video review.
Greg Bird was next, standing in with no homers, 20 straight hitless at-bats and one hit in 26 at-bats overall.
"I just think he's a little out of whack," Girardi said beforehand.
On the pitch after Judge's triple, Bird whacked a souvenir to the fans in the right-center field bleachers, good for a two-run homer and a 3-1 lead.
Aaron Hicks made it 4-1 in the fifth, belting a homer just inside the right field foul pole off Wainwright, who allowed 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Pineda, meanwhile, found his rhythm, yielding only a single from the third through the sixth. He showed off his dominant side in the fourth, getting Yadier Molina and Randal Grichuk swinging at 96-mph heat.
There was a mistake in the seventh. Molina hit an 0-and-2 hanging breaking ball into the leftfield seats to open the inning. But Pineda retired the next three and called it a (good) night.
Austin Romine and Ronald Torreyes had back-to-back two-run doubles with none out in the eighth to give the Yankees an 8-2 lead. Hicks added a sacrifice fly.
