MILWAUKEE — If one believes statistics are like Legos, in that you can do anything you want with them, then CC Sabathia’s pitching line Saturday night doesn’t look so bad.
Yet, if you heard how hard and saw how far Carlos Gomez, Jonathan Lucroy and Aramis Ramirez hit home runs to help the Brewers to a 5-4 win in front of a sold-out Miller Park crowd of 43,085, you would know the stats lied.
“When you make mistakes, you are going to get hit,’’ Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “For CC staying out of that one [big] inning is something we have to correct.’’
After giving up a leadoff homer to Gomez that smashed into the windows of a club in the third deck, Sabathia’s 0-2, 88-mph fastball to Lucroy in the third vanished over the center-field fence for a two-run homer. The next pitch, a changeup to Ramirez, landed over the left-field wall.
That Lucroy’s homer followed shortstop Brendan Ryan’s two-out fielding error on Jean Segura’s relatively routine ground ball made the three runs in the third unearned. Yet, it was impossible to ignore the three blasts.
“You have to be able to pick your guys up,’’ said Sabathia, who avoided a third straight defeat when Alfonso Soriano delivered a pinch-hit, soft RBI single in the seventh that tied the score, 4-4.
“It rips your heart out,’’ Ryan said of the error in his first start of the season. “CC was starting to cruise. It’s one of those things. It sucks that it happened.’’
In 5 ¹/₃ innings, the large lefty gave up four runs (one earned) and eight hits.
A year ago, when it was apparent Sabathia would have to learn to pitch without the mid-90s fastball, he beat himself up after losses. This season he is taking a different tack.
“I am not going to sit here and kill myself or be negative,’’ said Sabathia, who hasn’t won since April 24 at Boston, when the Yankees pummeled the Red Sox 14-5. “I am not going to do that this year. I will be out there in five days.’’
Trailing, 4-2, in the sixth, Mark Teixeira made it a one-run game with an opposite-field homer to left off Kyle Lohse that hit the top of the fence then a back wall and rebounded onto the field. A huddle by the umps, and not a replay, resulted in the play being ruled a home run.
Soriano, who was hitting for Brett Gardner against lefty Zach Duke, flared a single to right that scored Kelly Johnson from second and tied the score, 4-4.
The Yankees only had a chance to tie because of Dellin Betances, who replaced Sabathia with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth. Betances responded by whiffing pinch-hitter Scooter Gennett on three pitches and Gomez on a 1-2 breaking ball.
“CC has done a lot for me, the best I could do for him is get the two strikeouts,’’ said Betances, who has fanned 32 in 18 innings.
But Alfredo Aceves replaced Betances to start the seventh and gave up a one-out double to Lucroy, balked him to third with two outs and watched Rickie Weeks’ grounder to the left side get past a diving Yangervis Solarte for an RBI single that put the Brewers ahead to stay, 5-4.
Ex-Met Francisco Rodriguez worked a perfect ninth for his 15th save in 15 chances.
In six of Sabathia’s eight starts he has given up at least three runs in a single inning and they have all hurt.
“It’s one of those things, I feel I got better,’’ Sabathia said. “I feel it’s a step in the right direction.’’
The final line says it is. The sound and distance of the homers beg to differ.