Saturday, July 16, 2011

CC Stops The Bleeding

"You ain't hitting this."

After shaky outings from Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, you can bet Joe Girardi was ecstatic to put CC Sabathia's name on the lineup card as the starting pitcher.

Sabathia became the Major's first 14-game winner with a dominant eight inning performance against the Toronto Blue Jays in a 4-1 Yankees win. The victory snapped the Yankees two game losing streak with a chance to gain a split of the series tomorrow afternoon.

Sabathia won his seventh straight after he allowed a run in the first inning. Rajai Davis drew a lead off walk and stole his 25th base of the season. One out later Yunel Escobar singled past a diving Robinson Cano for a 1-0 Blue Jays lead. But Sabathia would allow just one more hit until John McDonald's one out double in the 8th. He allowed three walks, struck out eight and won for the 12th time in 13 starts. The 6'7" left-hander has also won seven straight starts and has allowed just two earned runs in his last 39.2 innings pitched.

The Yankees took the lead in the 2nd inning when Andruw Jones followed Nick Swisher's ground rule double with an RBI single off Rickey Romero. Jones homered twice in Thursday night's loss. Brett Gardner's double put boith runners in scoring position with Jones scoring on Eduardo Nunez's chopper to third.

The Yankees played sloppy defense in the first two games, but Saturday it was Toronto's turn to do some gifting. Curtis Granderson drew a lead off walk to start the third and one out later Robinson Cano singled him to third. Romero struck out Swisher, but Cano broke for second to draw a throw from catcher J.P. Arencibia. Second baseman Aaron Hill threw wildly home as Granderson scored the Yankees third run.

The Yankees scored again in the 4th when Gardner, who had three hits, hit a bloop to center and hustled to second for a lead off double. He scored from third on a two out RBI single by Derek Jeter for a 4-1 Yankees lead.

The Blue Jays got back to back one out bloop singles off Mariano Rivera in the 9th, but the Yankees closer picked up his 23rd save when he struck out Hill and got Travis Snider to ground out to Jeter to end the game.

Notes

In addition to his three hits, Brett Gardner stole his 10th consecutive base without getting caught.

Eric Chavez will reportedly start a rehab assignment any day now.

Eduardo Nunez's fielding trouble continued Saturday. He made his 12th error of the season.

The Blue Jays hope to get Jose Bautista (twisted ankle) back on Tuesday. For now, he's in a walking boot.

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