Larry Rothschild greets CC Sabathia after Sabathia’s complete game last night. (Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)
Remember this moment, Yankees fans. Clutch to it during tough times, because tough times will come. They always do.
(Yes, “clutch” is a veiled reference to the 2012 Yankees’ documented struggles with runners in scoring position.)
In the grind of the regular season, it might not get much better than the Yankees’ 6-2 victory over the Braves at Yankee Stadium. For this was a night when the Yankees, now winners of 10 straight games, cured two of their few ailments.
They delivered key hits with runners in scoring position, which they had not been doing (and winning nonetheless).
And in a more important area, they received an ace-like performance from their ace, CC Sabathia, who had been not quite himself during this run.
What’s next? Chris Stewart turns into a slugger? Well, he did double and score a run.
The Yankees’ big lefty went the distance to raise his record to 9-3 and lower his ERA to 3.55 as he allowed two runs and seven hits, walked one and struck out 10. He threw 116 pitches to give his bullpen a full night off.
“I didn’t want to be the guy to break the streak,” Sabathia said afterward.
Based on this red-hot Yankees month, Sabathia was such a guy. His three prior June starts gave him a 3.86 ERA for the month going into last night — perfectly acceptable, except when you match it against Hiroki Kuroda’s 1.80, Andy Pettitte’s 1.77, Phil Hughes’ 1.69 and Ivan Nova’s 0.79.
Joe Girardi agreed with a pre-game observation that it was slightly odd for the Yankees to be enjoying such a run without Sabathia serving as the primary pitching force. Instead, as Post colleague Joel Sherman details in his column today, that would be Pettitte, who has pitched extremely well since his return and therefore lifted some of the burden from his starting-rotation mates.
No matter how strong and long Pettitte goes, however, it’s natural to wonder whether, at 40, he can ride this all the way through the postseason. So the onus shifts to Sabathia to be the lead dog, and there’s little reason to think he can’t deliver.
Sabathia has experienced two primary problems this season, statistically. His home run per fly ball rate was up, from last year’s 8.4 percent to 12 percent (heading into last night’s game), and his strand rate was down, from 77 percent last year to 72.6 percent.
In his between-starts bullpen session with Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild, Sabathia explained, he refined his delivery — he was “not getting through on my front side and finishing pitches” — and the result last night was crisper pitches and a better sinker, in particular.
The improved sinker led to fewer fly balls — he generated 13 outs on the ground and another two via infield pop-up — and fewer hits, meaning there were fewer runners to strand.
“That’s the best I’ve seen him throw it all season,” said Stewart, the Yankees’ backup catcher, of Sabathia’s sinker.
“I think it’s important for him,” Girardi said of Sabathia’s strong start. “I could sense he was a little bit frustrated [with his recent outings].”
Sabathia wouldn’t concede to that, instead saying, “I just want to keep the guys in the game.” And he had been doing that.
On this night, though, the Yankees wouldn’t need any magical comebacks to sustain the streak after Sabathia allowed single runs in the first and fifth. Just a couple of big hits by Russell Martin and Derek Jeter in the fifth to put the Yankees on top, 3-2, and then insurance homers by Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano and another run-scoring single by Jeter.
“Things are coming together for us,” Sabathia said.
At some point, they’ll unravel, at least temporarily. So think of right now as the bar set high, with the Yankees hoping to reach this peak again about four months from now.