Bronx, N.Y., July 22, 2010 — Six days ago, CC Sabathia got his first 2010 post-All Star start in Yankee Stadium, and he took the mound after an emotional ceremony honoring two fallen Yankee heroes. Thursday it was CC again, and yet another icon was lost, as the Stadium honored The Major, ex-Yankee player and Manager Ralph Houk, who passed away the day before at age 90.
The last time out the Rays did their darnedest to bring CC’s home winning streak to a close. They didn’t, but they did deny him a win before succumbing late. This time out one imagines the Kansas City Royals got off their team bus with bats in their hands; they were on the Yankee southpaw from the start. And had they brought their running shoes too they might have brought the big man down. Following a strike out, four of five Royals reached Sabathia for hits in the first, with Brett Gardner stopping them on a good throw, as Jose Guillen inexplicably failed to score from second before ex-Yank Wilson Betemit was pegged out trying to stretch his rbi single. The Royals were up 2-0.
The running blunder was huge, because the Yanks were able to equal the two-spot off lefty journeyman Bruce Chen in the bottom of the first. Red-hot Mark Teixeira set the frame up with a double, and RBI-Rod delivered two with a bloop just fair down the right field line. But the Royals “O” barely skipped a beat, and they eked out a 3-2 lead when three of the first four batters in the second delivered hits. But when Podsednik knocked in Mike Aviles with a single with one down the onslaught was over as suddenly as it had begun. They would threaten with a leadoff double in the fourth, and two singles around a walk in the fifth, but Gardner’s arm came through again, garnering his second assist of the night on a Betemit hit, as he nailed Billy Butler trying to score from second to end the frame.
The score was tied 3-3 at the time because once center fielder David DeJesus tried to catch Derek Jeter’s long drive toward the Yankee bullpen on the first pitch of the bottom of the third, he banged into the wall as the ball came loose, and the Yankee captain motored around the bases for an inside the park home run. The fifth inning was key because once the Royals failed to take the lead, the Yanks pounced, taking the lead on a double off the bat of the offensively resurgent Jorge Posada, which scored Robbie Cano, on via a one-out single. Jorge moved to third on a wild pitch, and crossed with a key tally on Marcus Thames’s sac fly to deep left.
That run became critical the next inning. CC had escaped his early trouble with back-to-back strike outs in the second. He would strike out three in the sixth, but bizarrely, surrendered a run on one of them. Bloomquist doubled with one down and crossed to third on a balk, originally called by Bloomquist, with home plate ump Eric Cooper eventually agreeing. But the ball came loose when Yuniesky Betancourt whiffed and, rather than pegging to first for the second out, Posada tried to catch the Royals right fielder too far down the line at third. But the throw was wild, and Bloomquist crossed to make it 5-4 with Betancourt making second base. CC struck out two around an intentional walk, then posted his ninth strike out against Butler leading off the seventh.
At 108 pitches, CC had surrendered just four hits since the second, but he walked one in the fifth and issued that intentional free pass in the sixth. But now with one down in the seventh, Guillen battled him to an eight-pitch walk, and when CC missed on four of five pitches to Betemit his evening was over. Gutsy David Robertson came on and humbled KC bats into a popup and strike out, keeeping the tying run on second. Chen had made his last inning his best, setting the Yanks down on a popup and two strike outs, and Robinson Tejada continued the mastery in the seventh, retiring Teixeira on a pop to third, and going up quickly 0-2 on Rodriguez. Despite the bloop double early, Alex had had a weak night at the plate, but he lashed career home run number 599 to right on the next pitch to give the Yanks some much appreciated breathing room.
One of the dramas playing out in 2010 Yankee land is Joba Chamberlain’s work as setup man, and he was about to have a 27-pitch struggle in the top of the eighth. Ironically, he got a quick out on a long drive to right, but Podsednik “Ichiro’d” a slap single toward short and Jason Kendall topped an infield single toward third. Joba won an eight-pitch battle with Rick Ankiel, striking out DeJesus’s replacement in center, but KC pulled off a double steal as Ankiel missed. Joba lost a similar duel with Butler, who walked on seven pitches to load the bases with two in scoring position. But the night’s tension was over two pitches later when Guillen bounced to short.
A Thames single and Gardner walk keyed a four-run home-town eighth, and a game that was edge-of-your-seat frantic for three hours was suddenly a 10-4 laugher. A-Rod capped the rally with a double for his fourth rbi, actually disappointing a crowd that was on its feet screaming for home run number 600. Teixeira had three hits, scored a run and drove in two, and Jeter had two hits, an rbi and two runs, highlighted by the exciting inside-the-parker. Swisher drove in two with two hits as well. Posada made a bad error but came through with a huge hit, and Cano made a great over the shoulder catch in short center with a runner on third with the contest still very much in doubt.
But the story of this game now that it’s over is the same as it was in the beginning. Coming off a third-inning injury of Andy Pettitte four days ago, neither Phil Hughes nor Javy Vazquez were able to record more than 15 outs as a stretched Yankee pen barely kept it together through two wins and a loss. Weathering a seven-hit onslaught before he recorded a fifth out, Sabathia pitched into the seventh, just long enough, really, for the pen to take the baton. Featuring his fastball, CC faced 33 hitters to get his 19 outs, throwing 19 first-pitch strikes with a 78/42 strikes/balls ratio. He struck out nine and gave up 11 hits, but just four of them after the second inning. This impressively sized southpaw is not just a mountain of a man who powers his ways to wins. He knows his craft as well. He picks his spots.
Once Podsednik took strike three in the first, the next eight strike out victims went down swinging. Amazingly, CC achieved that steak of hitter frustration by coaxing a total of just 10 swings and misses all night.
Sabathia celebrated his 30th birthday one day before this start. If poet Emma Lazarus had lived this long, she would have counted off birthday number 161 this night. Famed for her poem that graces the Statue of Liberty, which stands proudly in New York harbor (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…”, her memorable sonnet is called The New Colossus.
He’s not new to us anymore, but CC is a Yankee Colossus nonetheless.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!