CC gets early hook in 6th
CLEVELAND — CC Sabathia has gotten some early hooks this season from Joe Girardi, none more costly than on Friday.
Sabathia retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced before being yanked with one out in the sixth inning despite having thrown just 77 pitches while the Yankees held a five-run lead.
Girardi’s decision had disastrous results, as reliever Chad Green got just one more out before allowing a pair of baserunners and then a game-changing grand slam to Francisco Lindor in what ended up being a crushing 9-8, 13-inning loss to the Indians in Game 2 of the ALDS.
Sabathia said he was surprised by the hook.
“It is what it is,” Sabathia said. “But like I said, our bullpen is the strength of the team. ... I felt good. After the first couple of innings, just settling in. Body-wise, I felt great.” Girardi defended the move. “It’s kind of what we’ve done all year with Green,” the manager said. “It was set up for Green to come in, and I decided to go. Usually, we give CC somewhere around 90 pitches. I think he was at 80, and it was set up for our bullpen. I went there, and it didn’t work.”
The lefty overcame a shaky first two innings to pitch into the sixth and seemed to be the beneficiary of an outburst from the Yankees’ lineup until he left the game. Green and David Robertson blew the lead. The only baserunner Sabathia allowed after loading the bases in the second was a leadoff walk to Carlos Santana in the sixth. He came back to get Jay Bruce on a liner to short before Girardi went to Green to face the right-handed hitting Austin Jackson. Green couldn’t get the final two outs of the inning before Lindor hit the grand slam that got the Indians to within a run.
“Our bullpen is unbelievable,” Sabathia said. “It’s great. It’s the strength of our team. I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.”
Earlier, it didn’t seem like Sabathia would see the sixth inning.
He was hurt by a lack of command and some shoddy defense behind him.
After the Yankees went ahead 2-0 in the first thanks to a two-run homer by Gary Sanchez off Corey Kluber, Sabathia gave the advantage right back in the bottom of the inning.
Todd Frazier didn’t help by making an error in not coming up with Lindor’s hard grounder to start the frame. Sabathia then walked Jose Ramirez on four pitches and hit Edwin Encarnacion with a pitch before Santana knotted the game with a two-run single.
Sabathia escaped further damage only when Didi Gregorius snared a liner by Bruce and beat Encarnacion back to second for an inning-ending double play. Encarnacion injured his ankle on the play,
A throwing error by Frazier in the second led to a second unearned run when Sabathia gave up an RBI single to Jason Kipnis. After a visit from pitching coach Larry Rothschild, however, Sabathia got two huge outs: first when Ramirez popped up in foul territory and then when Michael Brantley — hitting for the injured Encarnacion — struck out.
That began a stretch of 11 consecutive batters retired by Sabathia before the walk to Santana.
Unlike in Tuesday’s wild-card win over the Twins in The Bronx, when seemingly everything Girardi did worked, this was just one of the moves that cost the Yankees on Friday.
Green and Robertson likely were still affected by the heavy workload they had against the Twins, when Luis Severino was knocked out after retiring just one batter. And the bullpen was further taxed when Sonny Gray lasted just 3 ¹/3 innings in Thursday’s Game 1 loss to the Indians.