Yankees need Sabathia at his best
If I were the Cleveland Indians, I’d be worried about facing CC Sabathia. Not because he’s the New York Yankees’ hardest thrower (obviously not) or because he has one particular out pitch (see instead: Tanaka’s splitter, Severino’s slider). When you get to an elimination game in October, the real difference-maker is the heart.
In just a few hours, Sabathia will be standing in front of a soldout Progressive Field crowd, nearly all whom will be Indians die-hards, These people know Sabathia — he was one of theirs from 2001 to 2008 — but now he’s part of the problem the Yankees have created. Sabathia is standing between the Tribe and what was supposed to be a straight roll to the World Series. You bet they’re worried at how the American League Division Series has slipped away.
The big lefty is exactly who the Yankees want on the mound Wednesday night, the one pitcher guaranteed not to begin hyperventilating after the last note of the national anthem. Instead, Sabathia will begin executing a plan that was hatched after Game 2, when the Yankees made a promise to bring this series back to Cleveland.
Here’s the good news for Sabathia: He won’t need to throw more than five innings to finish off the Tribe. He might need only four. With the bullpen at full strength — Aroldis Chapman and David Robertson have had two days’ rest; Chad Green has had four — Sabathia will be free to max out. Fifty pitches might be all it takes to set in motion one of the most compelling comebacks in Yankees history.
Through it all, he promises his stress level will be under control.
“It’s just something that I nev- er thought about, I’ve just always been confident in my ability to get people out,” Sabathia was saying Tuesday. “No matter what the stuff was.”
He’s not going to worry about blowing up the radar gun. Sabathia stopped sweating the numbers years ago. The crowd noise won’t be an issue, either. Sabathia isn’t even fazed by the idea that Corey Kluber has corrected the mechanical flaws that ruined his Game 2 start. The Indians ace likes his own odds too. Back-toback meltdowns in the same series? The Yankees shouldn’t count on it.
What matters to Sabathia is the subtle science of expanding the strike zone against aggressive hitters such as Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana and Jay Bruce. It’s a nerve-racking exercise, knowing one mistake can send a ball flying to Indiana. But that’s where Sabathia’s experience comes in, distilled by a cool one might find in a ’40s-era jazz musician.
Even the Indians admire Sabathia for the big-game pitcher he’s become, even now at the eleventh hour of his career.
“He’s always had such a pretty arm swing and he’s got such a nice feel for the ball,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “He can manipulate the ball a lot. He doesn’t have the power that he did, which I think is natural. But he’s got a really good feel for pitching.
“We’ve been a little over-aggressive this series. We’ve gotten in where we’re chasing fastballs up, and then we’re swinging at breaking balls down. We’re going to have to do one or the other.”
Francona paused and added the one warning about Sabathia that could doom the Tribe.
“If you don’t make him stay in the zone, he will exploit that.”
But despite his confidence, Sabathia knows the Indians have several factors working in their favor. Kluber is as qualified as any American League pitcher to deliver in an elimination game. That’s one. The other is the return of Edwin Encarnacion after he spent four days tending to a sprained ankle.
If the slugger is indeed healthy, it’ll be an enormous symbolic boost to the Indians. Encarnacion is as volatile as any of Francona’s hitters, having blasted 38 homers this year, although, interestingly, he’s never taken Sabathia deep in
55 career at-bats. Still, this will be a different Indians lineup, one that’s studied video from Game 2 when Sabathia retired 12 of 13 after a turbulent start.
There was nothing breathtaking in the way Sabathia attacked Cleveland’s hitters, yet its beauty was in its simplicity. Two-seam fastballs and change-ups away from right-handed hitters, sliders down and in, everything disguised by Sabathia’s massive frame — a torrent of arms and legs that made it difficult for hitters to find the ball out of his hand.
Francona spoke of how fluid Sabathia’s delivery still looks after
3,200 career innings. That’s a gift, of course, but it’s also borne out of the veteran’s composure. He doesn’t over-accelerate looking to squeeze an extra 2-3 mph out of his fastball. He doesn’t lose his arm slot like, say, Dellin Betances in moments of panic. He looks for hitters’ weaknesses and calmly starts chiseling away.
That’s the hope the Yankees are clinging to Wednesday — Sabathia’s laser focus backed up by their monster bullpen. It’s a dangerous formula, and you bet the Indians are uncomfortable. They never expected the ALDS to last this long. But here they are — face to face with the man who refuses to blink. Old man Sabathia, ready for the game of his life.
“He doesn’t have the power that he did, which I think is natural. But he’s got a really good feel for pitching.”
Indians manager Terry Francona