New York Yankees: Has CC Sabathia regained his old form?
By Nick Ziegler
One of the most frustrating things for the New York Yankees in recent years has been the quick decline of CC Sabathia.
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From 2006 to 2012, Sabathia was one of the best pitchers in baseball, as he helped the Yankees win a World Series in 2009. Since 2012, Sabathia has pitched poorly and battled injuries which haven’t helped him regain his form of old.
Sabathia has struggled for the most part of the 2015 season and at the end of August many thought his season was over when he injured his knee. Instead of having his season ended early, Sabathia has come back from the knee injury in great form.
Since returning from the knee injury, the one notable difference for Sabathia is the brace that he now uses for his knee.
“Just being able to repeat my delivery is the biggest thing, not worrying about if I throw this pitch: Is it going to hurt?” Sabathia said to Ryan Hatch of NJ.com. “Or if I back off right here I can put something on the next pitch? It’s helped a lot. I’m just glad we found that solution and it’s been able to work for us.”
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“The brace just lets me let it go and I don’t have to worry about swelling, or the next pitch,” Sabathia said to Hatch.
Since he put the brace on, Sabathia has pitched 11.1 innings, only allowing one run, seven hits, and has struck out 11 batters. Sabathia was able to get his ERA under 5.00 after his recent start against the Tampa Bay Rays, and he will look to continue his good pitching against the New York Mets.
Sunday Night Baseball will be one of the biggest games of the season for the Yankees with a series win needed to try and stay close to the Toronto Blue Jays in the race for the American League East crown.
“It’s going to be electric out there,” Sabathia said Saturday to Hatch. “It was a great crowd [Friday] night. I think it will be fun.”
Sabathia’s performance going forward will be important for the Yankees for the rest of September, but it will also be important for the future. Sabathia is still under contract with the Yankees for the 2016 season and then has a vesting option in 2017.
Sunday night will be a true test to see how effective Sabathia is with his new knee brace on, as the Mets have one of the better offenses in baseball in the second half of the season.
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