CC, Yanks beat Pale Hose

Despite CC not having his best stuff, the Yanks beat the White Sox 3-2 in the opener of a four-game set.

The big guy (16-5) went eight innings and gave up two runs on a season-high-tying 10 hits with six strikeouts to no walks. His only real mistake was the home run to Alexei Ramirez in the fourth. He threw 104 pitches — 78 for strikes. He kept his pitch count low despite the White Sox hitting him, and he battled through the win. Terrific performance by him.

Mo came in and tossed a perfect ninth for his 28th save of the year. He now has 587 for his career and is 15 away from the all-time record.

The offense scored early and was shut down the rest of the way. Jake Peavy struggled early but after pitch #75 he retired 10 of the next 11 batters, facing the minimum during that stretch. The Yanks had one base runner — an Andruw Jones walk — from the sixth inning on.

The Yanks, who have won four straight and seven of their last nine, got on the board early as Gardy led off with an infield single and scored as Grandy followed with a double. Tex then flied out but Cano kept it going with an RBI single.

Grandy scored again in the third when Cano hit into a double play, which brought his MLB-leading runs scored total to 96.

Cano (1-for-4, RBI) was playing in his 1,000th career game while Posada (1-for-3) was playing in his 1,800th.

Jeter wasn’t in the lineup after taking a ground ball off his middle finger on Saturday and then getting beaned in the same finger yesterday by a Jake Arrieta fastball. The x-rays were negative though and it’s just a bruise. Eddie Nunez started at short and went 0-for-3 with a walk.

The teams will meet again tomorrow at 8:10 with Philthy hoping to get back on track against John Danks.

Other news:

• A-Rod will begin the next step in his rehab — baseball workouts — on Thursday in Tampa. He’ll of course have to play in a couple of minor league games before he can return, but he’s nowhere near that close yet. Girardi said that he’ll probably return to the Yanks “three to four weeks” after he gets started with his rehab stuff. The team is 14-7 without him.
• The Yanks announced during the game that they’ll release lefty Randy Flores tomorrow. The team says it’s a mutual split. They signed him to a minor-league deal in May but he was never called up.

The other Sox lost too so the Yanks (65-42) are just one game back in the division!