With the Yankees’ season on the line Joe Girardi benched a struggling Alex Rodriguez on Friday night, but stuck with several other struggling swingers.
As good as CC Sabathia was, the manager could have given plenty of others a rest, too.
Asked to get the anemic-hitting Yankees past the plucky Orioles in Game 5 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium and into the ALCS against the Tigers, Sabathia responded as a team would expect from its ace and highest-paid hurler. He took a one-hitter into the eighth and carried the Yankees to a 3-1 clinching victory in front of 47,081 Yankee Stadium with a complete-game effort.
Eighteen regular-season Orioles-Yankees games produced 9-9 ledgers and it took five ALDS games to determine who was the better team, and the difference is super slim.
Sabathia may not be able to start until Game 4 of the ALCS, which opens Saturday night at the Stadium, but without Sabathia the Yankees’ season would have ended in the first round for the second straight year.
Andy Pettitte will start Game 1. Game 2 is Sunday afternoon.
Sabathia retired the first nine O’s, gave up a leadoff single in the fourth to Nate McLouth and not another hit until Matt Wieters led off the eighth with a single. Sabathia added a dash of anxiousness by walking Manny Machado to bring the potential tying run to the plate in Mark Reynolds. Sabathia whiffed him, but Lew Ford’s ground single to left plated Wieters and cut the lead to 3-1.
Robert Andino’s chopper toward third resulted in a single that loaded the bases with one out for McLouth, the Orioles’ best hitter this series. Sabathia struck him out with a 1-2 slider.
Girardi had David Robertson ready in the bullpen to face the right-handed hitting J.J. Hardy, but stayed with Sabathia.
Derek Jeter bailed out Sabathia by fielding Hardy’s grounder on the run in the grass and throwing him out to strand three and keep the Yankees’ advantage to 3-1.
At 111 pitches through eight innings, Girardi sent Sabathia out for the ninth and he mowed the Orioles down on 10 pitches, notching his playoff career-high ninth strikeout and completing his four-hitter.
Sabathia was supported by an RBI single from Raul Ibanez in the fifth, a run-producing double by Ichiro Suzuki in the sixth and a homer from Curtis Granderson in the seventh.
Ibanez drove in Mark Teixeira, who singled to lead off the fifth for the Yankees’ first hit off Jason Hammel. Teixiera, who wasn’t being held on at first, then stole second.
Ichiro had one hit in his previous 15 at-bats when he batted in the sixth with Jeter on first. Ichiro sent a drive into the right-center field gap that hit the wall on a fly and easily scored Jeter to make it 2-0.
It didn’t come close to the drama delivered by Ibanez’ homers in Game 3, but McLouth raised heart rates in the sixth inning with a fly ball into the right-field seats with two outs and the Orioles trailing, 1-0.
McLouth drove a 3-1 pitch from Sabathia high down the line and the ruling on the field was the ball was foul. Buck Showalter trotted out to talk to the umpires, who then huddled. The next step was for four of the six umps to go behind the O’s dugout and look at a video. That didn’t take long and when the umpires returned they stayed with the original call.
Sabathia responded by fanning McLouth with a breaking ball to keep the 1-0 lead intact.
In a rematch of Game 1 won by the Yankees due to five runs in the ninth off Orioles closer Jim Johnson, Sabathia was better than Hammel, though the latter was effective.
Hammel allowed two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings, but was no match for Sabathia.
george.king@nypost.com