CC Sabathia delivered a strong Yankees postseason debut last night, going 6.2 innings, allowing 2 runs (1 earned) on 8 hits, zero walks, and 8 strikeouts. However, as Joe Pawlikowski notes, CC did not have everything working last night:
It took Sabathia 64 pitches to get through the first three innings, but he settled down after that, requiring just 31 pitches to get through the next three. He appeared to tire in the seventh, using 18 pitches to record two outs while putting runners on second and third. Phil Hughes came on to quell the threat, striking out Orlando Cabrera has he has done to so many other hitters this season.
“My changeup was really good,” said Sabathia. “The cutter was pretty good with two strikes.” Yet Sabathia admitted that not everything was perfect. “The fastball command wasn’t always there, but I was able to make some pitches when I needed to get someone out.”
This is something that was clearly noticeable throughout his start, as he consistently missed with his fastball. Meanwhile, his breaking pitches were stellar, as he was locating them perfectly and getting plenty of swing-and misses on them. The changeup, in particular, looked excellent, and he was using it to set up his slider as the out pitch for much of the night. He struck out 8 batters, and 7 of them were swinging strikeouts. Of the swinging strikeouts, 6 were on sliders, and one was on a changeup, and the one looking K was also on a slider. Here are the numbers on his pitches:
Pitches/Total Strikes/Swinging Strikes
FB: 58/33/2
SI: 7/4/1
CH: 21/15/5
SL: 26/18/7
CU: 1/1/0
While the Jorge Posada bashing will probably be constant over the next few days, Jorge should get credit for limiting use of the fastball in the later innings, as CC started off most of the hitters after the 3rd inning with breaking stuff. The numbers support this observation, as CC threw barely half of his pitches as fastballs (58 of 113, or 51.3%). Compare that to his fantastic start against Boston on August 8th, where CC threw 78 fastballs among his 123 pitches (63.4%). Most of the slack was taken up by the changeup, which was used 11 more times in last night’s game than it was used in that August contest.
The adjustment was quite noticeable, as CC began flying though innings and clearly settled down after a rocky first 3 innings. Hopefully CC has his fastball command in his next start. However, we saw last night that even when he does not, he can be quite effective.
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He looked good but early on he was missing everything up (especially the fastball) and it looked as though he was fighting his control all night, although in typical CC fashion when he had to throw a strike in order not to walk someone he did it. Very good game by Sabathia and we all know he can actually throw better games, so if he gets in a groove because of this start look out AL and NL (world series) hitters.
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What would probably help ALL the pitchers with Posada at catcher would be to USE BOTH SIDES OF THE PLATE!!!
The runs CC gave up in the 3rd were a direct result of allowing hitters to catch up to the fastball by always putting in on the outer half of the plate. Almost none of the Twins hitters could catch up cleanly with CC’s fastball, but throwing it on the outside part of the plate every time helps them. IIRC both Mauer and Cabrera or Mauer and Cuddyer reached base on hits on pitches on the outside corner where they had an extra half second to line things up.
Then in Hughes epic battle with Orlando Cabrera, Posada did not call for a single pitch on the inner half of the plate. Cabrera could not catch up with Hughes fastball and would likely struck out sooner on a fastball high and tight. Alas, none were called.
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The other Chris H Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Sabathia likes to pitch right handed hitters away so that he can use the change up down and away for the strike out pitch, but I have seen him bust hitters in all year, that is a key part of pitching outside.
I think where Hughes is concerned he shouldn’t have throw 9 of 10 fastballs, he should have just dropped a curve on him after the first 4 fastball didn’t get the strike out, Hughes just doesn’t mix it up in the pen.
I think all the criticism of Jorge Posada is a little uncalled for and people are just looking for something to blame him for and this is coming from ME.
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Is there going to be any coverage of the Red Sox/Angels game on TYU? Neither are the Yankees obviously but they do affect the Yankee universe and it is only fitting to at least do a break down of the game to see what we are up against depending on which team wins.
Personally I have Boston winning tonight with Lester on the mound but Lackey is due and will have the advantage of not pitching in Fenway so the Angels have a real chance IF they can get on against Jon.
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