CC on ‘bad’ ump: He shouldn’t be ‘near a playoff game’
CC Sabathia had a rough night and then took out his frustration on embattled umpire Angel Hernandez.
“He shouldn’t be anywhere near a playoff game,” Sabathia said after the Yankees’ season-ending 4-3 loss to the Red Sox in Game 4 of the ALDS. “He’s bad. I don’t understand why he is doing these games.
“He’s always bad. He’s a bad umpire.”
Hernandez was the plate umpire, a night after he blew three calls at first base that were overturned by replay. Sabathia wouldn’t offer any specifics on his beef with Hernandez on Tuesday, but the two chatted after the first inning as the left-hander departed the mound. Sabathia covered his mouth with his glove as he spoke to Hernandez.
Sabathia wouldn’t blame his night — three earned runs allowed over three innings — on Hernandez, but that didn’t stop Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello from firing a shot toward the Yankees clubhouse.
“Throw the ball over the plate, CC,” Porcello said. “I thought Angel Hernandez called a good game. You have got to throw the ball over the white part of the plate and then you get the strikes called.”
The 38-year-old Sabathia, a Yankees warhorse since 2009, is headed to free agency and has said he would like to continue pitching next year. But the Yan- kees could easily head in a different direction with a rotation that could use an offseason boost.
“This is a young team that has a lot of talent that is going to win a World Series,” Sabathia said. “And I want to be here to be a part of it.”
Sabathia’s misery started when he plunked Andrew Benintendi leading off the third inning. Steve Pearce’s ensuing soft single to center put runners on the corners before J.D. Martinez delivered a sacrifice fly for the game’s first run.
After Xander Bogaerts was retired on a ground out, Sabathia was in position to escape the inning with minimal damage inflicted. Ian Kinsler’s line drive to left could have been that final out, but leaping Brett Gardner couldn’t get his webbing on the ball. The RBI double gave the Red Sox a second run before Eduardo Nunez singled on a shot to left that put the Yankees in a 3-0 hole.
It marked the first time in Sabathia’s career with the Yankees that he allowed more than two runs in a home postseason start. For his Yankees career, he entered 8-3 with a 3.29 ERA in the postseason.
A night earlier, Luis Severino never gave the Yankees a chance and was knocked out in the fourth inning. And lefty J.A. Happ lasted only two innings in his Game 1 start at Fenway Park. The only Yankees starting pitcher who stepped up in the series was Masahiro Tanaka in Game 2.