C C SABATHIA was brought to the Yankees for the 19 wins. Of course he was. The Yankees learned the painful lesson last year that they do not have a divine right to the postseason.
So Sabathia’s April-through-September work was vital.
But the Yankees did not lavish the largest pitching contract in history for just the regular-season portion of the program. Joe Girardi wears No. 27 on his back, an ever-present reminder of the Yankees’ true mission statement.
And after that one-year playoff hiatus, Sabathia helped the Yankees take a huge first step toward championship No. 27 last night. He overcame a high early pitch count and a few miscommunications with Jorge Posada to generate his standard outing: long and effective.
The Yankees beat the Twins 7-2 as Derek Jeter heard chants of “MVP, MVP” with more postseason brilliance and Alex Rodriguez dismissed October boos by finally delivering a few meaningful playoff hits. But nothing mattered more than the work of Sabathia.
For nothing has derailed recent Yankee playoff appearances more than the lack of a true ace. Randy Johnson wobbled under the weight of the assignment and Chien-Ming Wang was miscast as a true No. 1. Since taking a three-games-to-none lead on the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS, Yankee starters had gone a combined 2-9 with a 6.30 ERA, and taken down the team with them. In that period, the Yanks were 4-13 in 17 playoff games.
So the Yankees reached deep into their wallets to try to reverse the rotation misery that has evicted them from the Canyon of Heroes. And in his playoff debut, Sabathia unleashed a mean cutter to work 6 2/3 innings, strike out eight, walk none and allow two runs, just one earned.
“That is what we envisioned when we signed him,” Girardi said.
Like A-Rod, Sabathia was coping with his own negative October history. He had a 7.92 ERA in five previous postseason starts. But the belief was this time would be different because the Yankees were able to modulate the innings of their workhorse in the way the Indians and, especially, the Brewers could not.
Sabathia admitted he was fresh last night, certainly more so than Minnesota. The Twins won a dramatic one-game playoff for the AL Central title Monday night and did not arrive in Manhattan until 3 a.m. on game day. But Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said that exhaustion did not undermine his club. Instead, he cited the work of Sabathia.
“He’s a pretty tough competitor to go out and face,” Gardenhire said. He meant on full rest or fumes.
In particular, Sabathia did what Johnson and Wang were so bad at in most of their Yankee playoff outings: He kept the opponent from doing major damage. For example, Denard Span led off the game with a double, but Sabathia came back and “struck out [Orlando] Cabrera, which is hard to do,” Gardenhire said. “And he struck out Joe Mauer, which is really hard to do.”
That enabled Sabathia to work a scoreless first. The Twins bunched three two-out hits for a run in the third. Then a second mix up in the game with Posada led to a second passed ball, this one producing a run when Posada was not very quick to retrieve the ball. It was 2-0 Minnesota. Maybe adrenaline would carry the Twins to a huge upset here and early control of this series.
But Sabathia struck out Jason Kubel, and allowed just two more singles — and no more runs — during the rest of his outing. He left to a standing ovation in the seventh, having suffocated the Twins long enough for Jeter, A-Rod and Hideki Matsui to help build a 6-2 lead.
“Definitely when I signed, this is what I came here for,” Sabathia said.
He did not just come to chase the Cy Young during the regular season. He came to be the ace of October, as well. In Game No. 1, he was the No. 1 postseason starter that the Yankees paid and prayed for. On the opening night that matters most in The Bronx, CC got an A-plus.