CC Sabathia and Curtis Granderson lead the Yankees past the Tigers, 6-2

By On April 29, 2012 · 3 Comments · In Game Recaps

CC's still mad the Yankees made him give up Frosted Flakes. He'll have to settle for Tigers instead.

Coming into Sunday’s game you got the feeling that the Yankees could put the Tigers away, if the Bombers could just get a quality start out of their rotation. Enter one Carsten Charles Sabathia. wasn’t quite brilliant in his eight inning, eight strike out, two hit, two run performance, but he was dominant, and easily could have gone the distance against the Tigers had the Yankees needed him to. Sabathia’s fastball topped out at 94 mph and was sitting around 91 mph. He was locating it on the corners with ease, and mixing in a nasty slider to put hitters away. From start to finish it was a vintage Sabathia performance, the kind of outing that suggests the big guy is just about ready for lift off. Given how he’s pitched his last two outings Sabathia could easily be about to put together one of his patented strings of brilliant starts. Let’s hope.

Sabathia put the Yankees in a position to win and the offense did the rest, with a little help from . was the closest thing the Yankee offense had to a big star in this one. He had two RBI and hit a home run into the Yankee bullpen. That home run, however, came maybe an inch from being the loudest out I’ve ever seen. actually had the ball in his glove, over the wall, before his hand banged into a dividing fence, allowing the ball to drop out for a home run. Apart from Granderson, had a solid game, going two for three (both infield hits) and drawing two walks, while had two RBI.

Max Scherzer was also a key member of the Yankee offense. Scherzer walked seven in just 4.2 innings on 119 pitches. In Scherzer’s defense, he was being squeezed. On one occasion Scherzer dropped what looked like strike three in front of Derek Jeter so convincingly that Derek himself began to walk to the dug out before the pitch was called a ball. While the strike zone was small for both pitchers, Scherzer seemed to put pitches right in the gray area again and again in the early going without much of a plan B. The disappointing calls eventually got to him. He began missing his spots by feet, not inches. Curtis Granderson’s first RBI was a bases loaded walk.

The Yankees added some insurance runs later in the game, but Sabathia only needed a handful of runs to take care of the rest. knocked an impressive homer to right, but all it did was pad his stats and look good in the replay. The Tigers never led and never gave the impression that they were in this one. The Yankees improved to 12-9 on the season and will next play host to the Baltimore Orioles.

The victory wasn’t all good, unfortunately. The third best Yankee hitter this season has been . He left the game with a hamstring injury that has been confirmed as a mild strain. He’ll be out for a few games at least. His absence will be felt.

Finally, mercifully, the Yankees have announced that will take over ‘s spot in the rotation. Garcia has been worse than awful this season while Phelps has shown promise as a long reliever. Let’s wish him the best. The Yankees still have holes in the rotation while we wait for to return and it’s always fun to see a home grown rookie get a chance to succeed.

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3 Responses to CC Sabathia and Curtis Granderson lead the Yankees past the Tigers, 6-2

  1. bpdelia says:
    April 29, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    I found myself repeatedly amused whenever the panic crazed writers and fans included sabathia in the rotation woes memr. Have these people never seen him? Does sabathia NOT, do this every year? In his whole career I think he has maybe once had great, starts rihjt from the start and every year his fb gets harder as,it gets warmer. This is a helluva team and sabathia is literally 25th on my list of ml roster worries. I never for even one second have doubted this guy. He is talented, powerful, smart, durable and a total pro. About as close to an early 70s to mid 8os style ace as you will see in the game these days. To have a guy with such a powerful and devastating repetoire be so efficient and make so few mistakes has been such a joy. ,watching him, rodriguez, jeter and rivera has made the yankees a pleasure to watch man.
    Finally watching him more I truly believe that barring devastating injury cc’s stuff will age well. Great command, great repetoire perfect mechanics. What will marchand write today poor guy?

    Reply
    • Eric Schultz says:
      April 29, 2012 at 11:54 pm

      Seriously, it’s as if they have very short memories (or they just need something to write about). Same goes for Mariano’s inevitable early-season hiccup.

      CC is historically a slow starter, and he tends to heat up when the weather does. He looked like he was in midseason form today, and I see no reason why he won’t have another ace-caliber season.

      Reply
  2. says:
    April 29, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    YANKEES WEEKLY TV SCHEDULE (EDT)
    MON - APR - 30 - vs Baltimore - 7:05 PM - YES
    TUE - MAY - 1 - vs Baltimore - 7:05 PM - YES
    WED - MAY - 2 - vs Baltimore - 7:05 PM - YES
    THU - MAY - 3 - at Kansas City - 8:10 PM - YES, MLBN
    FRI - MAY - 4 - at Kansas City - 8:10 PM - YES
    SAT - MAY - 5 - at Kansas City - 7:10 PM - YES
    SUN - MAY - 6 - at Kansas City - 2:10 PM - YES

    Reply

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