YANKEES-INDIANS PREVIEW:
Confident Sabathia born for pressure of Game 5
CLEVELAND — I went to CC Sabathia’s press conference on Tuesday looking for an angle to write about his momentous Game 5 start. His renaissance season has been widely celebrated but, really, who ever figured even a few weeks ago that he’d get the ball over Sonny Gray with the season on the line? So I asked him if he ever thought his days of pitching in games like this were as past tense as his 97 mph fastball, hoping he’d offer some insight about the challenge, as much mental as physical, of the slide from superstardom and then the refusal to accept mediocrity. CC looked at me like I’d ask him for a loan. “No, I never thought about that.” Seeing he wasn’t going to continue, I followed up with something about why was it that he never lost confidence despite having to re-invent himself as a pitcher. And as Sabathia answered, I realized it wasn’t that he disliked the question so much as he still looks at himself as the guy who was always better than everybody else: As a high school kid who hit home runs over the eucalyptus tree beyond the right field fence at his home field in Vallejo, Calif., in addition to striking out the world. Then still as a kid, sort of, who won 17 games in the big leagues at age 20, and went on to win a Cy Young Award at 26. And as the freshly-minted
zillionaire free agent who showed up in New York in 2009 and pitched the Yankees to a championship.
It’s an old axiom that the great ones are the last to know when they’re done, and this is why, because that sense of who they are never really changes.
Indeed, Sabathia has always had an aura about him that teammates have found comforting in moments like this.
As Brett Gardner said, “He’s a big-game pitcher, that’s what he’s always been.”
In some ways that’s what Sabathia himself was saying on Tuesday.
“It’s just something that I never thought about,’” he said again. “I’ve just always been confident in my ability to get people out, no matter what the stuff was.
“So being able to go out and have a good season makes me confident, but I never really thought about that, pitching in big games or anything like that. I just felt like if I got to the spot then I could show up.”
If you’re around Sabathia long enough, you come to know it’s not false bravado with him. He’s as real as it gets, which is why he’s so beloved in the Yankees clubhouse.
So when he explains that pitching in Game 5 — which could be his final game in pinstripes — will be fun for him, it doesn’t sound like a guy trying to downplay the magnitude of the moment.
“It’s a hell of a lot more fun to be in it than to be sitting on the side,’’ was the way Sabathia put it. “I’m just glad I get the opportunity to participate and not have to watch, because watching these games, you’ll get an ulcer.
“But pitching in them is a lot of fun.”
So, no, the moment won’t be too big for him on Wednesday night. Whether Sabathia can help the Yankees finish off a comeback for the ages against the mighty Indians is quite another story, though.
Even if he pitches as well as he did in Game 2, it might not be enough because Corey Kluber gets his shot at redemption for one of his few lousy starts all season.
That’s probably the key issue going into the game: can the Yankees get to Kluber again? Or will he re-discover the form that made him the best pitcher in baseball the second half of the season — the guy who pitched to a 0.84 ERA in September?
I think Sabathia will give the Yankees a chance. He was solid all season, and has been really good since finding that magic knee brace that has allowed him to land his delivery without pain the last couple of seasons.
He’ll get the game to the point where Girardi will be able to use a fully-rested bullpen — the preferable formula being Chad Green to David Robertson to Aroldis Chapman for perhaps the last nine outs.
And it may come to that, because I wouldn’t bet against the Yankees scratching out some runs against Kluber, because they make you think anything is possible after fighting their way back into this series, and especially in a Game 5 where there is huge pressure on the Indians.
In any case, it all starts with their 37-year old former ace on the mound, and, to think, the last time the Yankees were in the postseason, Sabathia was owning up to an alcohol problem and entering rehab. With his big fastball gone by then, you figured he’d hang on to collect his $25 million or so a year on his mammoth contract but never really be a major factor again.
Instead CC gets the ball for the biggest game the Yankees have played since the Jeter years. Perhaps only Sabathia himself doesn’t seem to find that remarkable.
I’m just glad I get the opportunity to participate and not have to watch, because watching these games, you’ll get an ulcer. But pitching in them is a lot of fun. CC SABATHIA