BOSTON — Maybe next year CC Sabathia should wait until game No. 2 to pitch. These Opening Day starts with the Yankees are not working out too well.
A year after getting beaten up by the Orioles to start the season, Sabathia was chased in the sixth inning by a Red Sox lineup that no longer features the fearsome sluggers of a few years ago.
Sabathia gave up five runs in 5 1/3 innings, allowing six hits with four strikeouts and two walks. He did not figure in the decision in the 9-7 loss.
“It was all on me,” Sabathia said. “I was missing trying to make the perfect pitch.”
Even as Sabathia mostly cruised through the first four innings, the big lefty did not look as if he was on top of his game. Then, things really came apart in the fifth inning.
Staked to a 5-1 lead, Sabathia got two quick outs in the fifth but then surrendered three straight singles, the last an RBI from Marco Scutaro.
Sabathia continued to unravel in the sixth, walking Dustin Pedroia to lead off the inning. Victor Martinez then doubled to left, followed by a two-run triple from Kevin Youkilis that got past Nick Swisher and went into the right-field corner on Sabathia’s 100th pitch of the game.
“I nibbled too much late in the game and it cost me,” he said.
After getting David Ortiz out on a broken-bat grounder, Sabathia gave way to David Robertson. Youkilis would score on an Adrian Beltre single to tie the game at 5-5. Sabathia threw 58 strikes in 104 pitches.
“Disappointed big time,” Sabathia said. “First game, we got five runs off Beckett. It just got away from me.”
The start was Sabathia’s seventh on Opening Day, his second for the Yankees. Fortunately for him and the Yankees, he tends to get better as the season goes on. He entered last night’s game 1-1 with a 5.34 ERA in his prior six starts.
Last year in Baltimore, he allowed six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings and did not strike out a batter. So this year was a step in the right direction.
Last night’s stinker comes after a rough spring for Sabathia. He allowed 15 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings in Florida, going 1-1. In his first season with the Yankees, Sabathia did not truly hit his stride until mid-summer and then was a postseason force.