KISSIMMEE, Fla. — If a body part was barking, the Yankees would be sweating. If there were 10 more years on the big guy, a large amount of concern would smother the Yankees’ universe.
Yet, because CC Sabathia is a proven stud in the prime of a sensational career, nobody is worried that when the season opens Sunday night at Fenway Park the Yankees’ ace won’t be ready.
“CC is CC, he will be fine,” Joe Girardi predicted after a misbehaving change-up and a two-seam fastball that didn’t pay attention resulted in the Braves spanking Sabathia in a 9-6 win at Champion Stadium.
Sabathia’s 29-year-old body isn’t ailing.
He has one year of experiencing the charged atmosphere that surrounds the Yankees. And he is 1-for-1 winning in a World Series in pinstripes.
“It will be crazy at Fenway, but it will be exciting,” Sabathia said of Sunday night’s opener against the Red Sox.
Chances are strong Sabathia will be better than yesterday, when he gave up five runs and eight hits in 4 2⁄3 innings during his final spring start.
Again, numbers don’t lie — he was 1-1 with a 7.23 ERA in five spring games — but we are talking about a pitcher who is 136-81 in 288 big league games and isn’t bothered by anything on or off the field.
“The change-up was up, it was one of those days,” said Sabathia, who surrendered a two-run homer to catcher Clint Sammons on a change-up.
“I will go to work on it in the bullpen and be ready Sunday. And I was all over the place with the two-seamer.”
Sabathia, who was 3-1 with a 4.26 ERA in five spring outings a year ago when the Yankees’ world was new to him, started slowly, finished the regular season 19-8 and went 3-1 in five postseason games.
He is looking forward to his second consecutive Opening Day assignment as a Yankee.
And this time he shouldn’t be as nervous.
“I didn’t get the jitters (last year) until I saw (Jorge) Posada and (Derek) Jeter walk by with their uniforms on,” said Sabathia, who was punished for six runs and eight hits in 4 1⁄3 innings by the Orioles in a 10-5 loss in Baltimore a year ago. “I realized what was at stake.”
Had yesterday’s problems surfaced in a real game, Sabathia would have addressed them differently.
“During the course of a (regular season) game, I would throw a lot more to get the feel of it,” Sabathia said of his sinking fastball.
“The two-seamer wasn’t working and I went away from it. If it was during the season I would throw more of them.”
Admitting that Sabathia needed to locate the fastball better, Posada took the blame for Sammons’ homer.
“The pitch selection was my fault,” Posada said.
“The kid got jammed in his first at-bat and I called a change-up and he hit it out.”
Sabathia will try to get the change-up down and control the sinking fastball in a bullpen session tomorrow.
Then it’s for real Sunday against a team many predict will challenge the Yankees for the AL East title.
“I still have a bullpen to get it worked out but you got to go with what you got,” Sabathia said.