TAMPA, Fla. -- A day after Masahiro Tanaka turned in the best start of the spring for the Yankees, Carsten Sabathia did just the opposite.
Sabathia couldn't survive the first inning in the Yankees' 10-2 loss; he gave up six runs (four earned) on six hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning. Along with his struggles, the Yankees' rough first inning included a perfect storm of errors, bad hops and the Braves finding the holes.
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"I gotta do a better job of not letting it unravel," Sabathia said. "Whether that's getting a strikeout or another double-play ball, I have to make the pitches to get us out of the inning and not turn it into six [runs]. If it's two, it's fine; six is too much."
For Sabathia, the nightmarish top of the first saw the Braves put their first six hitters on base, putting the 36-year-old lefty in a hole.

"Those make or break games, whether it's in the spring or up north," said Sabathia. "Early in the game, late in the game, you gotta make pitches in those situations."
It was the second start of the spring for Sabathia; he fired two scoreless innings vs. the Rays last week. Against the Braves, he would leave after throwing 33 pitches. From there, Sabathia went to the bullpen and capped off his afternoon by throwing 20 more. The Yankees starter still feels like he's doing all the little things well after returning from offseason knee surgery.
"You want to get that all out of the way, just make sure you can push off as hard as you can, land and be good," said Sabathia. " I did that a couple times in the bullpen, but I wanted to get that accomplished today in the game, and I was able to do that."
Sabathia also saw positives in some of his pitches. "My cutter was pretty good; the action was good. I threw some good changeups; [Kurt Suzuki] did a good job hitting one. I went down to the bullpen and everything felt good, so I'll just be ready when it's time to go again."
After an afternoon like this, Sabathia says the biggest lesson is to simply move on.
"Yeah, you can forget about this. It's Spring Training. Obviously take it as a learning experience and be ready to go next time out."