Sabathia Throws A Complete Game, Yankees Win 6-3

Since coming off the disabled list CC Sabathia has had one excellent start – his first game back against Toronto on July 17 – followed by an unlucky start against Oakland and an iffy start this past weekend against the Red Sox when he gave up six runs in six innings en route to an 8-6 Yankees loss.

Some people thought that maybe something was wrong with him and were afraid that he was starting his decline.

Silly rabbits, trix are for kids…

Tonight, Sabathia gave those worrywart Yankee fans reason to relax and smile. He tossed a complete game and snapped Seattle’s seven-game win streak.

Sabathia held the Mariners to three hits in nine innings of work. Yes, those three hits were of the extra base hit variety and two of them were home runs but thankfully they only resulted in three runs for the Mariners.

Sabathia struck out 10 Mariners and only walked one – Brendan Ryan walked in the ninth just before Dustin Ackley took Sabathia deep.

After that Ackley home run, Joe Girardi came out of the dugout to take Sabathia out of the game. Sabathia talked Girardi into letting him stay and he proceded to get three outs and secure the win.

The Yankees got their scoring started in the third inning with an infield single by Ichiro Suzuki followed by a double off the bat of Russell Martin which advanced Ichiro to third. Curtis Granderson singled on the first pitch scoring both Ichiro and Martin and giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Seattle cut the lead to 2-1 on a home run by Casper Wells.

In the sixth inning, Mark Teixeira back from missing a few games because of that wrist injury, singled. Raul Ibanez hit into a force out and Teixeira was out at second. With Ibanez at first, Nick Swisher came up and hit a ground out which advanced Ibanez to second. Next, Eric Chavez stepped up and hit an 0-1 pitch off the wall in right field for his 10th home run of the season.

Unfortunately, Chavez left the game in the ninth with a foot injury. Hey, he lasted until August!

The Yankees added two more runs in the seventh inning on singles by Robinson Cano and Ibanez. They now have a two-game winning streak with Hiroki Kuroda looking to make it three tomorrow against Felix Hernandez.

Some notes:

• From ESPN Stats and Info – This was Sabathia’s 32nd career game with 10+ strikeouts. He’s tied with Tim Lincecum for 2nd-most among active pitchers. Johan Santana had 50.
• From YES – This is the eighth time the Yankees have had nine players with 10 or more homers. The last season was 2009 and in 1998 they had 10 players with 10 or more. Derek Jeter is sitting at eight home runs right now.
• From YES – In last three seasons, only two other pitchers have thrown nine-inning complete, with 10 or more strikeouts with 103 pitches or less: James Shields (7/31/12) & Cliff Lee (4/14/11)
• From YES – Since 2009, CC has five nine-inning complete games. Other Yankees combined: two – Phil Hughes in 2012 against Detroit and Bartolo Colon in 2011 against Oakland.

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