Yankees: No Worries, It’s Gonna Happen With Sabathia Every So Often

The Yankees went on their way to pound themselves to victory last night following the exit of their starting pitcher after giving up seven earned runs. Not to worry, though. Sabathia is going to have nights like this one every now and then.

For Yankees starter, CC Sabathia, he might have known even when taking his warmups in the bullpen that he would be grinding this one out against an unforgiving Baltimore Orioles lineup. And that it was going be one of those nights when he would be just a hair off with his command of the strike zone.

And that he was going to have to make an extra effort to keep the ball down, even as his pitches seemed to have a mind of their own in wanting to sail up and into the danger portion of the strike zone.

As it turned out, Sabathia would indeed have to gut through the night without his best stuff. Pitching into the sixth inning, he kept his composure throwing three-fourths of his pitches in the strike zone (83-60), while giving up nine hits and two home runs.

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Normally, against a team like the Orioles, with those kinds of numbers, Sabathia would have taken the loss in a game in which he never gave his chance to win. As fate would have it though, the Yankees came back from a 9-1 deficit to win the game on a walk-off home run by Matt Holliday in the tenth inning.

When you are spinning the ball to the plate at 95-97 mph, as Sabathia was able to do many years ago when he was with the Indians and the Brewers, you can be effectively wild in the zone and get away with it.

Because in many cases, hitters will get themselves out swinging at that high hard one coming in at eye level. But an 89 mph fastball has to be located, pitch after pitch after pitch.

Video Courtesy of the YES Network

It’s a hard thing to do because it requires complete focus and concentration on every pitch. Sabathia has mastered the transformation into what he is now, a finesse pitcher. And with that, he has become a mainstay of the Yankees starting rotation, giving the team a balance of pitching styles for the opposition to cope with.

Sabathia can sit in the Yankees dugout and watch, for instance, as Luis Severino blows hitters away, pounding the strike zone with one 97 mph fastball after another. But while some pitchers in his aging shoes might look out there telling themselves that they can still do that when they can’t, Sabathia says, you do it your way and I’ll do it my way.

Sabathia, and other pitchers like him (Adam Wainwright and Felix Hernandez come to mind), are going to have nights like the one he had last night. It’s something a finesse pitcher learns to live with as their margin of error shrinks with each tick of the radar gun downward.

The Yankees (Ironically) Have A Problem: There’s Too Many Arms

The Yankees, ironically, could find themselves in a position next season where they have too much pitching to support a starting rotation.

The Yankees won a game last night they probably shouldn’t have won, so everyone goes home happy. And that should include Sabathia as well, because even as he looks at his pitching line, well, Mama said there’d be days like this, Mama said.