At this rate, give CC Sabathia his second Cy Young Award. Just call him Cy Cy. The big lefty was pretty near perfect last night at rainy Yankee Stadium.
Sabathia beat the Mariners, 4-1, retiring the first 19 batters he faced in dominating fashion. He struck out a career-high 14, including seven straight at one point, one short of the AL record.
Brendan Ryan singled to left-center with one out in the seventh to break up the perfecto. Nevertheless, Sabathia sent the Mariners to their 17th straight loss and battled through two rain delays in the process. The second delay threw him off as he walked three straight to open the eighth.
Sabathia won his major-league-high 15th game. That is what aces do, and this is why Sabathia has the edge over all other AL starters this year, including the incredible Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander.
You can point to Verlander’s statistical advantages over Sabathia, and the Angels’ Jered Weaver is rolling, but give CC the edge. If Verlander or Weaver outduels CC the last nine weeks, give ’em the Cy Young, but right now it is Sabathia.
Verlander has made six starts against the AL East and is an impressive 3-0, but somehow he is 1-4 against the weak AL West. Sabathia has made nine starts against the AL East, that’s a heavy burden, and is 5-4 in those outings, including a tough 2-1 loss to the Rays last Thursday.
Sabathia has pitched 21 innings against the White Sox, Indians and Twins — three AL Central teams Verlander faces on a regular basis — without surrendering a run.
Verlander improved to 14-5 last night with a 2.34 ERA and a major-league-leading 0.89 WHIP. Weaver won again to improve to 14-4 with a major-league-leading 1.79 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Sabathia owns a 15-5 mark with a 2.56 ERA and 1.11 WHIP.
“It’s different pitching in this division, it is real tough,” said Freddy Garcia, who spent his first 12 seasons in other divisions. “Look at all the lineups, even Baltimore [in] last place. Man, it’s tough. In this division you really have to pitch and just try to keep your team in the game. There’s nothing like it in baseball.”
No, there isn’t. In his three years as a Yankee, Sabathia is 55-20.
“It’s a beast,” Sabathia said of pitching in the AL East. “You got to bring your ‘A’ game every night.”
Sabathia has grown as a pitcher, as Mariano Rivera pointed out.
“CC was good with Cleveland, outstanding with Milwaukee, but coming here, I have seen CC develop character and a mentality to really battle that I haven’t seen before,” Rivera said.
Then Rivera added these four words: “There’s no other place.”
No, there isn’t. Yankee Stadium remains the biggest stage and CC is center stage. Sabathia was 21-7 last season and finished third in Cy Young voting behind winner Felix Hernandez, who starts today for the Mariners, and the Rays’ David Price.
Getting beat by King Felix can happen, but Hernandez had 13 wins last year and over the last two seasons is 21-21 with the struggling Mariners.
Wins are important. At Cooperstown this past weekend, inductee Pat Gillick said: “Wins matter. Forget about quality starts and forget about all that other stuff.”
Wins matter. No matter what, this will be a great Cy Young race.
Sabathia will have to do better against the Red Sox. He is 0-3 against Boston with a 6.16 ERA.
“That’s a good lineup,” he said. “I got a couple of more times to face them, so hopefully I can make pitches.”
But Sabathia is 4-0 against the Blue Jays and Orioles, and in 17 innings against the Rays has surrendered just two earned runs.
He is 12-2 with a 2.06 ERA since May 19. If he stays on this roll, the Yankees will get where they must go, and Sabathia will be the one carrying them on his back.
All that should add up to his second Cy Young Award. Just call him Cy Cy.