BALTIMORE — He was leaking oil, pint by pint, pitch by pitch, his right knee screaming at him every time he fell on it. All 6-feet, 6-inches and 300 pounds of CC Sabathia crunched down on the leg, on the knee, a sharp ache that started with his first pitch of the night and stuck around for all of the 87 that followed.
“It makes it hard to land,” Sabathia would say later. “It’s a shooting pain that goes through me every time. It makes it hard to finish pitches.”
What he wanted on this night was to finish five innings. That wasn’t going to be easy. There is nothing easy about this job for Sabathia, not anymore. The swagger once paired with the game’s most intimidating left arm has been replaced with a resolve that inspires his teammates and a vulnerability that has earned him the eternal affection of Yankees fans.
He needed one more inning to notch career win No. 249, and the other guys on the team had done their jobs. Gleyber Torres had hit another two home runs, his fourth two-homer game of the year, all against these punching-bag Orioles. Gary Sanchez had his daily dinger, one that off the bat looked like it might soar to Antietam.
The leads had been 5-0 and 6-1 and 7-2, but the Orioles kept coming after Sabathia, and Sabathia kept grinding, kept girding himself against trouble. Three more outs and he’d tie Vic Willis, a turn-of-the-century pitcher who once lost 29 games in a season, for 48th on the all-time wins list. You say wins don’t mean what they used to? See what CC Sabathia says about that.
It has been important for him to take the ball every fifth day in this season when injuries have tried to massacre the Yankees. Luis Severino is still weeks, maybe months away. James Paxton has missed a couple of starts. Sabathia knew he wanted to at least answer the bell until Paxton could return to the rotation.
“We’ve had so many injuries,” he said. “Everybody’s had to do what they can to make up for that and do our part.”
Sabathia’s part was to get through five, get No. 249. He already knew he’d be getting a cortisone shot in the near future, that the fluid in his knee would have to be drained, that he’d miss a couple of starts, maybe a couple of weeks. When you can see the end of your career every time you walk on top of the pitcher’s mound, every start is a gift.
“I’ve dealt with this before,” he said.
He’s dealt with so much already. The knee has been a problem for a few years now. In the offseason he had to undergo heart surgery, which in its own way seems more than a little tinged with irony. Because at this stage of his career, he leads with his heart before anything else. It’s his heart that allows him to keep getting major league hitters out.
It was his heart that got him through four. And would somehow help him negotiate the fifth even as his knee began to howl, even as the Orioles’ bats began to catch up with sliders and cutters now fluttering in without their customary bite. Richie Martin greeted him with his first-career home run leading off the fifth.
It was 7-3. The Orioles fans sprinkled among the 17,849 at Camden Yards, silent all night, shook the sleep out of their eyes. Hander Alberto made solid contact, but his line drive died in Clint Frazier’s glove in right field. Two outs to go.
Jonathan Villar drilled one down the left-field line for a double, but third baseman DJ LeMahieu stepped in front of a seed off the bat of Trey Mancini. One out to go. One out to No. 249, and a tie with Vic (the Delaware Peach) Willis in 48th place, two wins behind Bob Gibson at 251.
Renato Nunez crushed one to dead center, over the wall, over the growing roars. Still one out to go, and now it was 7-5. Now a laugher had turned back into a baseball game. There was activity in the Yankees bullpen, but Aaron Boone stayed where he was. Pedro Severino doubled to left. Now the tying run was at the plate. No. 249 was in a bit of jeopardy. Boone stayed put.
“You could see he was losing command,” Boone said.
Joey Rickard singled. It was going to be 7-6. Severino chugged around third. Somehow, Brett Gardner uncorked a perfect throw, a smidge up the third-base line. Sanchez caught the ball, blocked the plate — a little too well, the Orioles thought, though their replay challenge was denied. Severino was out. So was CC.
He limped slowly away, down the steps of the dugout, into the clubhouse. He had just enough to hit the tape. It ended 7-5. Sabathia had his third win of the year. He tied the Delaware Peach. Gibson will be next, whenever the knee allows him back.
“You have to get the medicine in there and let it work its magic,” he said, on a night when he’d performed a little sleight-of-hand himself.
https://nypost.com/2019/05/23/cc-sabathia-pours-his-guts-out-one-more-time-as-il-awaits/
2019-05-23 07:30:00Z
52780301278695
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar