This time CC Sabathia made the all big pitches.Sabathia escaped a runner on third, one-out jam in the seventh and Hideki Matsui led off the eighth with a homer to lift the Yankees to a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays in Toronto Thursday, evening their record at 17-17.
A couple of weeks ago, Sabathia found himself in a similar situation against the Angels. Seventh inning, runners on second and third one out. But that time, CC couldn't make the big pitches, get the big outs. He allowed the go-ahead runs and the Yankees went on to an 8-4 loss. Sabathia couldn't gut out the kind of win an ace needs to deliver.
Thursday, Sabathia showed he had that grit.
Scott Rolen led off the seventh with a double and advanced to third on a fly to center. The Jays had a golden chance to take the lead, but Sabathia showed some resolve. After intentionally walking Rod Barajas, Sabathia struck out John McDonald, walked Marco Scutaro and got Aaron Hill to ground out to third.
He gave the Yankees a chance and Matsui rewarded him for that effort.
However, Matsui's blast put Joe Girardi in a bit of a quandary. With Brian Bruney still on the DL and Phil Coke out because of a tight back, Girardi had to figure out how to bridge the game to Mariano Rivera. His choice was to put the game in the hands of one of the unreliable guys currently inhabiting the pen, or send Sabathia back out there for the eighth, already having thrown about 100 pitches.
Turns out Sabathia is a pretty good set-up man, too. He pitched a perfect eighth and Rivera closed it out.
In eight innings, Sabathia allowed two runs on five hits and four walks and struck out five. He threw 65 of his 111 pitches for strikes, and while this outing was not as good as the four-hit shutout he threw at the Orioles last week, it was more than good enough this night.And the Yankees' offense needed Sabathia to be that good.
The Yankees again ran into trouble driving runners in scoring position, going 1-for-8 and stranding 10. The reality is the Yankees should have had two big innings and this game should not have been close. Sabathia should not have had to work that hard.
With one out in the first, the Yankees put runners on first and second with one out, and after Alex Rodriguez flew out to right, Matsui walked to load the bases. Nick Swisher worked out a walk to drive in a run, but that was all the Yankees got as Robinson Cano grounded out to snuff the threat.
That was a tough opportunity to waste, but not a tough as the seventh. With the Yankees trailing 2-1, Brett Garner walked and Francisco Cervelli executed a perfect hit-and-run to put runners on first and third. Derek Jeter followed with a bloop single to tie the score. Cervelli went to third and the Yankees were primed to put this one away.
But that's all they got. Johnny Damon struck out looking. Mark Teixeira flew out to center and Rodriguez flew out to right.
Still the Yankees rallied and won for only the fifth time this season in 18 games when they trailed after six.
More importantly, the Yankees took 2 of 3 from the first place Jays and 4 of 6 on this trip. That buys some good will as they return to the Stadium.
More Good
Gardner bailed out Sabathia in the fifth. With a run in and Barajas on second, McDonald singled to center, but Gardner threw a one-hop strike to Cervelli to nail Barajas at home.
Runners In Scoring Position
Thursday
1-for-8 (.125)
Season
78-for-313 (.249)
Up Next
Friday vs. Twins, 7:05 p.m., YES
Francisco Liriano (2-4, 5.75 ERA) vs. Phil Hughes (1-2, 8.49)
Hughes has gotten progressively worse in his last two starts. He'll need to turn that around against a Twins team coming off a sweep of the Tigers.
7 comments:
I notice your convention is to say "flew out" rather than "flied out." I get that your way is more grammatical, but it flies (sorry) in the face of how I've seen such things described over 35 years of reading the sports pages. Despite being grammatically correct, your way makes for an awkward read. Any thoughts?
First, thanks for reading. Both Dave and I appreciate it. Second I do enjoy and good discussion on grammar.
I think "flew out" may seem awkward because you're not used to someone actually using proper grammar in this context. How many times do you listen to game and hear an announcer refer to a team by the city and follow with the pronoun "they?" Too often, I bet. Yet to many people, when someone uses the correct pronoun "it," it seems awkward.
I could tell you the story about the Czar's rose garden that one of my journalism professors at UConn many years ago would recite to us, but I'll just bottom-line it: Just because something has been done a certain way for many, many years, it doesn't mean we should accept that way as, in fact, correct. Always question how and why things are done.
As you point out "flew out" is more grammatical than "flied out." I am by no means perfect grammatically. I'm sure that as hard as I try, I'm going to make more than my fair share of grammar mistakes. But in this instance, I'll stick to my way, which I don't find awkward at all.
Geez...the Czar's rose garden. I never took a J class and even I heard that story.
Really, shouldn't the complaint be that your happy the Yankees are a .500 ballclub right now? :)
That should be "...you're happy..." Me writing am bad.
I think my recents rant have shown that I'm anything but happy with the Yankees right now. I've saying they are underachieving badly. The recent trip has lowered the temperature on Joe Girardi's seat, but a poor homestand will crank up the heat very quickly.
You're quite right, and I'm by no means a stickler for the status quo. I only meant to suggest that in my case (and I may be the only one), your use of "flew" rather than the colloquial "flied" pulls me out of the read. It's jarring, and I lose the flow. It makes me aware of the words, rather than just sailing smoothly along. It seems to take my brain half a moment just to get back into the zone where reading is unconscious. In any case, I'm probably the only one. Love the blog. Keep up the good work.
"Flied" vs. "flew"? See http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004151.html for an interesting read. Personally, I use and prefer "flew" because "flied" just doesn't feel right. It hits me just as "flew" hits Anonymous, above.
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