Bronx, N.Y., September 4, 2011 – Showing no signs of his 128-pitch effort in Boston Tuesday, staff ace CC Sabathia did exactly what he was supposed to Sunday afternoon, dominating the visting Blue Jays into the eighth inning in a 9-3 Yankee win. The fourth-place Jays (with a record good enough for third in four of the other five divisions) reached him for base hits early, but not as often as he was striking them out.

In the fourth inning, the vistors grouped their fourth and fifth safeties with CC’s only walk and a fielder’s choice to plate two runs, but that is all they would score off Sabathia, and it only halved a 4-0 Yankee lead. New York had stolen a run in the first on shortstop Mike McCoy’s throwing error, and in the home third Derek Jeter followed the first of two Jesus Montero singles and a hit by pitch with a no-doubt-about-it bomb to left that rivaled the one he whacked for his 3,000th hit almost two months ago.

The Jays would get just one more hit off Sabathia the rest of the way, but the whiffs kept coming, one more each in the fifth and seventh, two in the sixth and, resolving a great deal of debate in the stands, a 10th punch out leading off the eighth once manager Joe Girardi sent CC out there having already made 107 pitches. The swinging strike out of Kelly Johnson was the burly lefty’s 111th pitch, 79 of them strikes. He allowed the six hits, two runs, and one walk, and pounded 20 first-pitch strikes to 29 Jays batters. And he exited the game four pitches before Jose Bautista smashed his major-league leading 40th home run off Rafael Soriano, closing the score to 5-3.

The Yanks had scored their fifth run in the sixth, as Alex Rodriguez hit his first home run since returning from the DL off Toronto starter Brett Cecil to lead off the frame. Jesse Litsch pitched an effective seventh in relief, but tall righty Jon Rauch ran into all kinds of trouble in the home eighth. With Mariano Rivera warming for the ninth, Robinson Cano lined a one-out single, and Nick Swisher followed with his 22nd home run, altering the Yanks’ bullpen plans. Following a second out the Bombers loaded the bases on walks sandwiched around an Eduardo Nunez single. Jeter singled hard up the middle for two runs, and five rbi’s on the day, and the final 9-3 score was forged.

September 4 is the anniversary of the day Walter Tetley passed away in 1975. If the name rings no bells, perhaps the fact that he provided the voice of Sherman in the “Peabody’s Improbable History” segment of the old TV shows featuring Rocky and Bulllwinkle might. The genius dog Mr. Peabody was constantly taking the young and clueless Sherman into the “wayback” machine to learn about history.

Had Sherman asked his mentor about how the Yankees have won games over the years, Mr. Peabody would have said something like, “Elementary, my dear boy,” and taken him to the 20s with a view of the Babe blasting the ball, and the likes of Bob Shawkey winning games; the 30s with Lou Gehrig and Lefty Gomez; the 40s with Joe D and Red Ruffing; the 50s with Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford; the 70s with Thurman Munson and Ron Guidry; the 90s with Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte.

The Yanks win games with great pitchers and great position players. Just like Sunday, when it was,

CC and the Captain

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!