Cc Sabathia is right there in the conversation with Reggie Jackson as the best free-agent signing in Yankees history. But with his team’s season on the line, the lefty needed to be akin to this year’s Mr. October.
That would be Justin Verlander, who already had won twice in the Division Series, including a complete-game shutout in a do-or-die Game 5 on Thursday night in Oakland. Twenty-four hours later, the ball was in Sabathia’s hand in this game of transcontinental, pitching H-O-R-S-E between two of the great workhorses of this era.
Sabathia had to match the pitching genius to set up an ALCS date against Verlander’s Tigers. He did, serving as No. 1 starter, setup man and Mariano Rivera all on one night to carry the Yankees to a 3-1 triumph that finally stopped the relentless pursuit of the Orioles in 2012.
“The word ‘ace’ gets thrown around too much,” said Derek Lowe, who won three clinching games with the Red Sox in 2004. “We saw in the last 48 hours who the real aces are. It is Verlander and CC. There are very few of those guys. So you really appreciate what they do.”
The Yankees won this series in five games because Sabathia shut out the noise — the benching of Alex Rodriguez, the dearth of offense and the peril of another early playoff exit — and shut down the Orioles.
“He showed why he gets paid all that money,” Russell Martin said. “He’s The Man. He’s our horse.”
Sabathia started two games and registered 53 out of a possible 54 outs — 8 2/3 innings in a victorious opener and a four-hit complete game last night in a win-or-go-home clincher. It was the first winning Yankees complete game in the decisive game of a playoff series since Ralph Terry shut out the Giants in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series.
In a season of injury and, at times, uncharacteristically mid-rotation performance, Sabathia has restored his ace-hood at the ideal time. He has run off five straight winning starts, pitching at least eight innings in each while working to a 1.73 ERA.
In a Division Series in which the Yanks hit just .187 and the margin of error between advancing and misery was razor-thin, Sabathia carried the largest responsibility. He had to win both of his starts, including the nine-inning referendum on this season.
“That’s what I am here for,” said Sabathia, an accountable star. He understands his responsibility. He pitched great in the 2009 postseason, and the Yanks won it all. He did not pitch well in the past two postseasons, and the Yankees fell short of their annual Canyon of Heroes mandate.
“He’s gotten it right again and he is vintage CC,” Joe Girardi said.
Sabathia, his repertoire resplendent, had a one-hitter and a 3-0 lead going to the eighth before four of the first five Orioles reached, producing a run and leaving the bases loaded with one out. All season the Yankees would open leads — in the AL East and in this series — and the Orioles would close them, and here they came again.
“People thought they would go away,” Girardi said. “They never went away.”
Tying runs in scoring position, go-ahead run at first, tension peaking inside Ruth’s House, Sabathia faced Nate McLouth, the one Oriole who had hit consistently in this series. In the sixth inning, McLouth had come so close to nipping the right-field foul pole for a homer that a video review was necessary to uphold the umpire’s foul-ball call. David Robertson was warming. But Sabathia had plenty left in the tank, firing 95-mph heat for strike two and another devilish slider to fan McLouth. He then retired J.J. Hardy on a grounder to short.
He was at 111 pitches, a night’s work. But the Yankees had played consecutive extra-inning games in the previous 48 hours and had ALCS Game 1 as a possibility tonight. To keep the bullpen out of this game was therefore full of meaning. Rafael Soriano, who had thrown 3 1/3 innings between Games 3-4 warmed up, but Sabathia said, “There was no conversation. I was going out for the ninth.”
Sabathia needed 10 pitches to make the 3-4-5 in Baltimore’s lineup go 1-2-3.
“When he came out in the ninth, I thought I was facing a closer,” said Baltimore third-place hitter Adam Jones.
He was starter, setup man, closer. Workhorse and pitching H-O-R-S-E equal of Verlander. Behind his left arm, the Yankees advanced, finally put those pesky Orioles in the rearview mirror, winning the season series 12-11 and the Division Series 3-2.
Now Sabathia and the Yankees get Verlander and the Tigers in the ALCS. The title of Mr. October 2012 is in play.