Empire Writes Back
Fansided

C.C. Sabathia’s Strong Outing Not Enough For New York Yankees Against Detroit Tigers

By Michael Papandrea

facebooktwitterreddit

1. 43. Final. 2. 63

C.C. Sabathia Did Everything He Could To Get the New York Yankees A Win Monday Night, But Was Out Done By Alfredo Simon And the Detroit Tigers

Despite pitching through eight innings and giving up two runs to a very good offense, C.C. Sabathia took a loss against the Detroit Tigers as the Yankee offense could not get anything going on the evening.

The game was all pitching and defense as Sabathia and Tiger’s starter, Alfredo Simon, went blow for blow through the first six innings. Sabathia had the help of his outfielders, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner, who made a few great plays behind him.

In the second Inning, Mark Teixeira went deep for a leadoff home run on an offspead pitch he had to reach for to pull it over the right field fence. It was an impressive display of power as he one-handed the pitch for his fourth home run on the season. That would be the only run the Yankees scored as Simon kept the hitters guessing with his fastball, splitter, slider, and cutter combination, which helped him in striking out seven batters.

Sabathia was pitching efficiently all night, as he went through six innings facing the minimum thanks to three double plays and a pick off/caught stealing attempt in which Jose Iglesias was tagged out by Sabathia himself. The highlight on the night for Sabathia was getting Miguel Cabrera to ground out three times, two of which were double plays. He pitched to contact for most of the night as he only struck out five batters, his lowest strikeout total in a game this season.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning when the Tigers finally got to Sabathia. With two outs and runners on first and second, J.D. Martinez came to the plate after having lined out to a diving Gardner in his last at bat. He hit the ball hard again, but this time it was off the glove of shortstop, Didi Gregorius, and into left field for an RBI single. Up next was Yoenis Cespedes, who went up the middle to bring in the second run of the inning. The ball was thrown to third base to catch Martinez in a run down and put the bleeding to a halt.

After a Chase Headley single to lead off the next half inning, followed by a Stephen Drew sacrifice bunt, the Yankees had a great chance to score the tying run for their pitcher. Gregorius came to the plate having gone 0-2 in his previous at bats. He would single up the middle off Simon, but the ball was hit too hard to score Headley as center fielder Rajai Davis was playing shallow. Despite bobbling the ball in center, Headley was already slowing down at third, as he and the third base coach anticipated Davis to field it cleanly.

With runners on the corners and one out, Tigers manager, Brad Ausmus went to his bullpen. With the lefty Ellsbury at the plate and another lefty in Gardner on deck, Ausmus made an interesting decision. He went with the former Yankee and right handed pitcher, Joba Chamberlain, who got Ellsbury to hit the ball hard on the ground to second for the 4-6-3 double play. In 2014, Chamberlain had a 53% ground ball rate and a 24% fly ball rate, which is likely why Ausmus chose to go with the right hander.

Sabathia had a nice bounce back inning in the eight, but the Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the ninth as Joakim Soria shut the door to collect the save.

Overall, it was a frustrating night for the Yankees at the plate after having scored 19 runs in their series with the Rays. The weather on the night did not help as it was windy and raining throughout the evening.

More from New York Yankees

Alex Rodriguez, who went 4-10 with two home runs, four RBIs, and four walks against the Rays, failed to reach base tonight as he went 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

Adam Warren will be on the mound for the Yankees tomorrow night as he faces David Price in game two of the series. The lefty Price has been off to a hot start with a 0.40 ERA through 22.1 innings in three starts. His hot start may very well continue against the Yankees and their lefty heavy lineup.

Next: Where Did The Yankees Rank In Week 3 Of The Power Rankings?

More from Empire Writes Back

Home/New York Yankees