Sabathia’s schizophrenic start something to savor, despite loss
WELL, one of the reasons you come to the ballpark — especially if you’re playing hooky from work and come in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week — is because there’s always a chance you’ll see something you’ve never seen before, right? Well, mission accomplished. If you came to Yankee Stadium on Wednesday you saw something that had happened only seven times previously by only five pitchers — going all the way back to 1913, when such things were first duly noted. That’s 103 years. That’s a whole l ot of sweaty midweek games in August, and frosty weekend games in April, and inconsequential games in September that hardly anyone remembers attending.
“It was crazy,” CC Sabathia said, and he said it softly, and he said it while shaking his head, and that alone will tell you that while there may come a day when Sabathia will be delighted (or at least amused) to join such an exclusive list as the one he joined, that day wasn’t Wednesday, and it won’t be for a while. First, we’ll start with the names: Red Ruffing. Nolan Ryan (twice). Curt Schilling (twice). Randy Johnson. Cole Hamels.
If you’re keeping score, that’s three pitchers presently in the Hall of Fame, one who has a good chance of getting there (a lot better shot, anyway, than his other stated career goal of U.S. Senator), and one who’s 38 games over .500 for his career, with a lifetime 3.28 ERA. To that list, add Sabathia. Because Wednesday, Sabathia became only the sixth pitcher —and the first since Ham els 10 years ago — to strike out at least 12 hitters and allow at least seven earned runs.
It was exactly as schizophrenic an outing as that record would indicate. There were times when Sabathia’s slider slid like it was 2009 again, times when his fastball crackled like it was 2007 again, a parade of Blue Jays swinging and flailing and muttering to themselves on the way back to the dugout, asking homeplate umpire Tripp Gibson, “Was that a strike?” and Gibson always solemnly nodding yes, it was.
It was the first time since 2012 that Sabathia struck out as many as 12 batters (and he lost that game, too, to the Rays). Remarkably for a guy who spent so much of the early part of his career as a pure power pitcher, it was only the fifth time in his career he struck out as many as 12 (his career high, 14, came against the Mariners in 2011). But even that 2012 version of Sabathia still possessed an explosive fastball, usually the key element in piling up all those K’s.
“I thought his stuff was really good today,” manager Joe Girardi said, before turning to the flip side of the record. “Certainly better than what the boxscore says.”
Ah, but the box score DOES say it, simply and damningly: seven runs, all earned. And it’s true Sabathia wasn’t helped by two terrible plays by Chase Headley in the fifth — one an error of
commission (a terrible throw to first after stepping on third for a force out) and one of omission (foolishly throwing to second base for a force he didn’t get on a slow roller).
“Really, he should’ve been out of that with only one run,” Girardi said. “The line says seven runs, but it should only be four at most.”
Well, that’s true. But it ALSO would’ve been only four runs total (and one, instead of four, in the fifth) if Sabathia hadn’t served up a two-out meatball to Melvin Upton Jr. that Upton crushed the other way for the three-run jack that sealed the game and Sabathia’s place in an odd (if elite) club.
“No excuses,” the big man said. “I need to make better pitches than that.”
Though Sabathia continues to frustrate — after pitching to a 2.20 ERA in his first 11 starts of the year, Wednesday finished a second 11-game stretch in which that ERA is just a shade under 7.00, lifting it to 4.49 on the season — he remains one of the Yankees’ only true options in a rapidly shrinking rotation. And he clearly can still summon the old magic in bursts.
In many ways, Wednesday’s line was the perfect summation of Sabathia’s season — some good things to chirp about, some godawful t hi ngs to chatter about. An d look: There’s a reason why the club he joined includes only gold-plated names: You’ve got to be awfully good to be allowed to grind through a game long enough to assemble BOTH seven runs and 12 punchouts.
Still, none of that is on the plaques Ruffing, Ryan or Johnson have hanging in Cooperstown. Probably not the epitaph Sabathia wants, either. But you have to admit this much as you walked out of the Stadium after this 7-4 Yankees loss: You probably never saw that before, right?