Yankees Win Sixth In A Row With A Walk Off Against the A’s

CC Sabathia had not looked good in his previous four starts coming into tonight’s start. Many people were wondering which CC would show up: CC the Ace or CC the guy who was pitching like he was hiding an injury?

The answer: CC the Ace showed up tonight.

Sabathia started off a little slowly, throwing only 90-91 in the first inning but he did strikeout the side to start the game with his slider as his out pitch.

As the game went on Sabathia’s velocity increased. In fact, his final pitch of the sixth inning hit 96 on the gun. To say he was dominant would be an understatement – in fact Stephen Drew had two of the three hits off of Sabathia tonight. He finished with eight full innings of work, gave up those three hits, he only walked two and struck out 11.

Jarrod Parker nearly matched CC in performance with eight strong innings of his own. He gave up one earned run on six hits, he didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven Yankees.

The Yankees were clinging to a one-run lead when Rafael Soriano came in to close the game. After getting Yoenis Cespedes to fly out to lead off the inning, Brandon Moss tagged him for a solo run. Sabathia’s hard earned win was gone.

Josh Donaldson popped out to Russell Martin for out number two but Soriano began to struggle and made things get slightly scary. Okay, I’m lying, it was more than slightly scary. I was watching the game through my fingers.

He walked Derek Norris who was replaced with pinch runner Coco Crisp. Crisp stole second and Soriano intentionally walked Stephen Drew to put runners on first and second with two outs. Seth Smith struck out to end the inning with the game tied 1-1.

Yankee fans were itching for a walk-off but it wasn’t meant to be, at least not in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Swisher popped out in foul territory for out number one, Robinson Cano struck out swinging, Alex Rodriguez, who had been booed all night hit a single to keep the inning alive but Curtis Granderson struck out for 1800th time this season to end the inning and send the game into extras. (I know he hasn’t struck out 1800 times this season, it just feels like it.)

David Robertson came in to pitch the top of the 10th with relative ease getting Cliff Pennington and Jonny Gomes to fly out and get Josh Reddick to strike out – Reddick was 0-5 with four strikeouts on the night.

Sean Doolittle, who had come in to pitch the ninth, threw a strike to start Russell Martin‘s at bat. Pitch number two, however, was right in Martin’s wheelhouse and he deposited it into the left field seats.

Ballgame over, Yankees win.

Some facts:

• The Yankees now have a six-game winning streak.
• Derek Jeter has a 15-game hitting streak.
• The Yankees are now 3-3 in extra innings this season.
• CC Sabathia with 6+ days of rest: 2-0 with 0.42 ERA. Four walks, 26 strikeouts, opponents are hitting .147 and he’s only allowed one home run.

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