Behind an absolute 7-inning, one-hit gem from CC Sabathia, the Yankees reduced their magic number for winning the AL East to one. One more Yankee win or Red Sox loss and the Yankees will be your 2009 AL East champions.
The pitching from Sabathia today should be the story, even more than the Yankees inability to hit with runners in scoring position, as this is the type of pitching the Yankees hope for–and even expect–from Sabathia in the postseason.
What’s more, is that CC pitched most of the game while still scoreless. The Yankees simply refused to score with any runners on base (until the bottom of the eighth), getting their offense instead from a Robinson Canó lead off home run in the sixth.
The Yankees again ran against Boston, this time running against Victor Martinez instead of Jason Varitek. If defense–including catching–wins championships, then the Red Sox have some issues. The Yankees, with Damon in left, aren’t perfect, but even Jorge Posada throws out more runners than the Varitek-Martinez tandem.
After a swing that saw the Yankees drop a series to the Mariners and lose the first of three to the Angels, the Yankees have now won four straight and are a virtual lock for the division.
Right now the Yankees’ biggest concern is whether Andy Pettitte or AJ Burnett gets the ball in game two.
That’s not a bad problem to have.
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3 Responses to Yankees 2-hit Red Sox, reduce magic number to one
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TIQ IQ
Great game by Sabathia! Hughes came in and was a rock to continue the good pitching and Mo was Mo as usual getting the save with 2 Ks.
Now for the bad the Yankees had the bases loaded twice and Dice K had only one 1-2-3 inning and we only scored 1 run off of him and 3 in the game, we can’t leave that many base runners in the playoffs and win, but other than that one game away from win 100 and the East!!
Some more good news, “Reliever Dave Robertson also pitched a batting-practice session on Saturday at Yankee Stadium, throwing to Shelley Duncan and Juan Miranda.” Girardi said that he would consult with pitching coach Dave Eiland and head trainer Gene Monahan about Robertson’s availability, and said that he would begin using him on Monday at the earliest.
So it looks like we could have Robertson back for a least a game or two before the post season and that is a good thing considering his 13 K/9 rate.
Sabathia lowered his ERA to 3.21 and notched his major league leading 19th win and with one more start to go he can get his ERA into the 3.teens and have his first 20 win season ever in the bigs… which is actually kind of surprising he as never gotten to 20!
With Sabathia closing in on win number 20 (and not losing a game in the second half in order to do so) and Tex leading the league in RBI and having a small chance to at least tie for the AL lead in HRs the two “big name” free agents (AJ being the third out of the 3 we signed) have really come in under immense pressure and scrutiny regarding performance, contract size and expectation and performed about as well as any of us (as fans) could have asked for really! I’m sure Tex is hoping he can get his average up to .300 before the season is at an end but given his huge slump to start the year he has really bounced back and anything in the .290s is more than acceptable and CC I’m sure would like Zach Greinke not to exist so he could win a Cy Young but even with out it he has had one of the best seasons ever for a first season Yankee pitcher especially with the expectations and following up his killer performance down the stretch last year.
I would even be so bold as to say that CC since the all star break this year has been more impressive than CC down the stretch last year considering he has more pressure this year than last, he is in the AL this year and the fact that he has had to face the Red Sox 3 separate times since the all star break and has dominated in every single one of those games! He really is an ace, and I can’t wait to see what he can do going into the playoffs rested for once and going forward into his contract, I see at least on Cy before his contract ends.