The Yankees are all but finished for 2013 and thanks to a left hamstring injury, CC Sabathia’s season is already done.
The left-hander suffered a Grade 2 strain in the second inning of Friday’s win over the Giants and while he was able to pitch seven effective innings that night, he’ll need up to eight weeks to recover.
“It hurts,” general manager Brian Cashman said Monday afternoon. “Every injury we’ve had this season has hurt. This just adds to the list.”
With six games remaining, the Yankees have seen their miniscule postseason hopes almost entirely vanish and now will likely have to use both Phil Hughes and David Huff again.
Sabathia showed no obvious signs of discomfort following the start and on Saturday expressed optimism he would start against the Rays Wednesday.
When asked if it was something Sabathia could have pitched through again if the Yankees’ playoff chances were better, Cashman said, “No. Regardless of what was going on with us, his season is over.”
After struggling for much of the season, Sabathia came up with one of his best starts of the season in Friday’s 5-1 win over San Francisco.
Now, the Yankees will begin the final stretch of the regular season with their playoff hopes all but gone and Sabathia unavailable.
“No matter what our chances are, we have to keep going,” Cashman said. “We just have to win all of our games and see what happens.”
The results likely won’t be good no matter what the Yankees are able to do against Tampa Bay and Houston.
Even if they win out, the Yankees would finish with 88 wins, a number the Rays and Indians are inching closer to seemingly each day.
The Yankees start the final six games Tuesday with Hiroki Kuroda on the mound against the Rays.
“We’re in a dogfight,” David Robertson said after the team coughed up an opportunity to sweep the Giants over the weekend.
“We knew coming in that we couldn’t lose any more ballgames,” Robertson said. “It’s not like anything’s changed. It will be the same thing [Tuesday]. We’ve got to start a [six]-game winning streak. We have to. We have to go out fighting.”
As for Sabathia, Cashman said the 33-year-old had not experienced any previous issues with the hamstring this season. He dealt with an alarming dip in velocity that doesn’t appear to be a temporary issue, even after having his left elbow cleaned up last offseason.
Sabathia finished a disappointing 2013 season with a record of 14-13 with career highs in ERA (4.78), losses (13) and home runs allowed (28).
“He didn’t have the season I’m sure he was looking for or the one we were counting on for him,” Cashman said. “But once this [hamstring] clears up, we hope he can get back to work and be more like the guy we expect next year.”
If he doesn’t, the Yankees will be in trouble. Sabathia is owed $71 million over the next three seasons and has a vesting option worth $25 million in 2017 that is almost certain to kick in if he manages to stay healthy.
And although he was ineffective for significant chunks of the season, Sabathia was still a workhorse, finishing with at least 200 innings (211) for the seventh straight year.
“We had to deal with a lot all season,” Cashman said. “We need to fight to the end even after this.”