STAR QUALITY
Rotation continues to roll as CC earns first victory
Whenever players talk about the offense, they always stress the importance of keeping the line moving. One guy does his thing, then the next guy and just keep it going.
It’s sort of how the Yankees starters are approaching their assignments these days. And Tuesday, in an 8-3 rip job of the Twins at Yankee Stadium, CC Sabathia certainly did his part, giving the Yankees a fourth straight strong rotation outing.
“You just want to keep it rolling,” Sabathia said after going a season-high six innings and striking out four while surrendering just two hits, one unearned run and one walk to claim his first victory of the season.
Sabathia’s effort came on the heels of strong games by Jordan Montgomery, Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka. In those four games, the starters worked at least six innings and gave up no more than one run.
“That’s a big part of our team, helping the bullpen out and keeping those guys fresh. It’s up to us to go out and pitch deep into games,” said Sabathia, who pitched his second game since coming off the disabled list.
Sabathia went 82 pitches and felt he could have gone more.
“Hopefully I can build on this and get to around 100 pitches,” he said.
But Tuesday, six innings was enough, according to manager Aaron Boone. And Sabathia had done more than enough the way he usually does.
“Same old stuff. That cut fastball, he’s really got a great feel for it, it’s become a great pitch for him. It’s allowed him to continue to be successful deep into his career,” Boone said. “Threw some good changeups. He’s got that backdoor low breaking ball he can flip in there. But yeah he was really good again tonight.”
So why not tempt it by sending him out for another inning?
“No. he was done after the sixth,” Boone said.
It was a typical Sabathia effort with lots of soft contact, pitches always around the strike zone. At times, he just made it look easy, retiring eight straight at one point and later the last six batters he faced following an error.
“Just trying to attack the strike zone,” said Sabathia, who passed Jim Bunning for 17th place on the all-time strikeout list (2,858). “At this point, I just try to get outs, no matter what. my stuff is what it is right now and I have to go out and be effective with what I have. ... Never thought I’d be pitching [this long]. Good to have a plan and be able to execute it. It’s more fun.”