WHY CC MONSTER IS THE KING OF NEW YORK!

After Wednesday night’s game in which the Yankee bullpen was asked to record 13 outs in a tough loss, the team needed CC Sabathia to pitch deep in Thursday’s rubber game against the Rays to preserve the ‘pen. He was able to do that, and then some, in a 5-3 win over the American League East leading Tampa Bay Rays.

CC was absolutely outstanding in this one. He pitched 8 innings, allowed two runs (Both un-earned, more on that in a bit), on seven hits, one walk, and a season high 10 strikeouts. His record now improves to 5-0 after that dominant win, and it’s his fourth straight start in which he completed eight innings. His ERA also drops to 3.51 on the season.

As noted, both runs Sabathia allowed were un-earned because of two Eduardo Nunez mishaps at third base. His first error came in the first inning when he tried to field a grounder. He wanted to run to the bag to finish the inning, but he kept his eye off the ball, thus the ball trickled off his glove and rolled into foul territory. His second error came the following inning when he was throwing to second to start a potential double play. Instead, his throw was off by a mile and everyone was safe. I don’t know what the deal with Nunez is. He’s a Major League Baseball player and those are two easy plays that must be made. He did go 2-for-2 with a walk, two steals, and a run scored, but both of those errors are unacceptable. In fact, he got pulled in the sixth inning for a defensive replacement in Jayson Nix because of it.

After Sabathia departed, Rafael Soriano pitched the ninth. He allowed a run, but it was a cheap run. Elliot Johnson reached on an infield single, and then he advanced to second on defensive indifference before finally scoring on two ground outs. David Robertson threw over 50 pitches the previous two games, so this is why Soriano closed out the ninth instead.

The Yankees offense showed up in this one, as they tagged David Price for five runs in his seven innings of work. Curtis Granderson hit a solo homer off him in the second, and Robinson Cano also tagged him for a 2-run bomb in the fifth.

Cano went 3-for-4, which now gives him an 8-game hitting streak, and he’s gone 12-for-32 (.375) in that span to raise his average from .255 to .286 on the season. The Yanks also got RBI hits from Chris Stewart and Andruw Jones as well.

Final Score: Yankees 5 - Rays 3. This was a nice win for the Yankees after Wednesday’s tough loss. They’ll host Jesus Montero and the Seattle Mariners this weekend, so that should be fun. King Felix Hernandez goes for the Mariners on Friday against Hiroki Kuroda to kick off the three-game set.



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse


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