CC Sabathia doesn’t consider himself a throwback even though he looks and breathes the part.
“I just consider myself a baseball player,” he said yesterday. “I’m just a guy who wants to win.”
Sabathia said this after delivering the kind of performance that would fit well in the days before pitch counts and innings limits became common. Handed the ball on a sunny afternoon before 46,900 at the Stadium, Sabathia authored the kind of gem that makes it clear why he’s one of the elite pitchers in baseball.
He allowed one run in eight innings, anchoring the Yankees to an 8-3 triumph over the Rockies. The big left-hander scattered seven hits, struck out nine, and the lone run he allowed came after seven shutout innings when the Yankees built a 6-0 lead.
“I felt like I needed to keep my foot on the gas no matter what the score was and be aggressive in the strike zone and throw all my pitches,” Sabathia said after improving to 10-4 on the season and lowering his ERA to 3.25. “I wanted to keep going out and attacking them.”
It was a milestone victory of sorts for Sabathia — his 50th as a Yankee to match Chien-Ming Wang as the quickest to record 50 wins over the last 30 years. He’s also the first pitcher in the majors to reach 10 wins, though numbers seem of little importance to him at this stage of the season.
“I wish I could say it meant something, but it doesn’t,” Sabathia said in an almost apologetic tone. “It is what it is. It’s still June and we’ve got a long way to go. Our goal is to win a championship. That’s what we’re here to do.”
Winning championships is part of the Yankees’ tradition, which will be celebrated today during Old-Timers’ Day. It’s an annual ritual that links old-school baseball with the present. Sabathia might not consider himself a throwback now, but in a decade or so when he’s part of the lineup of legends, he might well be referred to as such. He already is the kind of pitcher who works seven-plus innings, doesn’t waste time on the mound and isn’t afraid of the big city or the big stage.
“He’s the same guy every day,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “He just goes out and pitches and wins ballgames. That’s what he does.”
There will be a lot of those types of players on the field today, including players like Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry and David Cone. Sabathia fits into that mold. He is looking forward to being a fan today.
“I think it definitely keeps the tradition alive around here,” he said of Old-Timers’ Day. “You know what you’re playing for. You know what the pinstripes stand for. To see these guys come out, let’s you know there’s really no place like New York. It will be exciting.”
The Rockies had little to get excited about yesterday thanks to Sabathia, who had early command of his fastball, change-up and slider. Nick Swisher ran down a deep fly off the bat of Ty Wigginton in the second inning and in the sixth Colorado threatened with two runners on, no outs and Troy Tulowitzki at the plate. Tulowitzki had singled in his first two at-bats, but Sabathia escaped trouble when he jammed the Rockies shortstop with a cutter and got a ground ball double play. Otherwise, the game was a breeze.
“His stuff was as good as I’ve seen it all year,” Girardi said of his starter’s 94-pitch performance.
Sabathia said the warm weather helped, as did the early run support.
“These guys scoring runs makes it smooth,” he said. “When they score runs early you can go out and attack the strike zone.”
It sounds simplistic, but it’s not always executed. It was the kind of performance the Yankees Old-Timers could appreciate.
george.willis@nypost.com