Yankees: Ranking CC Sabathia’s top five moments over the past 11 years

Prior to Sunday afternoon’s regular-season home finale the Yankees honored the retiring CC Sabathia for his accomplishments over the past 11 years in pinstripes. It was a well-deserved ceremony for CC who has provided fans with countless memories during his time in New York and will go down as one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history.

CC Sabathia’s career isn’t over just yet and before it ends he’d love nothing more than to add a second championship to his Hall of Fame resume. Regardless of how this October plays out for the Yankees, CC is a shoo-in for Cooperstown and deserves to go in on the first ballot.

He’s received numerous accolades over the past 19 seasons during his time in Cleveland, Milwaukee and in New York since he arrived back in 2009. He had a great seven and a half year stint with the Indians and a legendary three-month run with the Brewers but his most memorable moments have come with the Yankees.

He’s had so many great performances for the franchise that it’s almost impossible to pick his top five but for the sake of this list, I’m going to try.

#5: 2017 ALDS in Cleveland

The 2017 season was a resurgent one for CC as he went 14-5 with a 3.69 ERA and 127 K’s in 148.2 IP. That year he completed his transition from an overpowering pitcher who relied on velocity to one who focused more on command and locating all of his pitches to induce a lot of soft contact.

It was a season where he also reminded fans how clutch he really was. CC went 9-0 with a 1.71 ERA in 11 starts following a Yankees loss and during the postseason he pitched to a 2.37 ERA and stepped up multiple times in games where the season was on the line. The Yankees magical run ended after Game 7 of the ALCS in Houston but during the ALDS it was CC who helped lead New York to a Game 5 victory on the road against the top-seeded Indians to complete their comeback from down two games to none.

After pitching 5.1 innings of two-run ball in Game 2, CC followed that up with an even better performance in the Yankees 5-2 win in Game 5. He tied a career playoff-high with 9 K’s over 4.1 innings before handing the ball off to David Robertson and the rest of the Yankee pen to close things out. CC ran into some trouble in the fifth when he allowed two runs, but he set the tone with four scoreless innings before that to preserve the 3-0 lead Didi Gregorius gave the Yanks with a pair of early home runs off Corey Kluber.