Yankees take Game 1 from Angels, 4-1
Photo credit: Getty/Nick Laham | NEW YORK - OCTOBER 16: CC Sabathia #52 of the New York Yankees is congratulated by teammate Derek Jeter #2 for striking out Mike Napoli #44 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to end the seventh inning in Game One of the ALCS during the 2009 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium on October 16, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
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CC Sabathia had insisted that his experience pitching 7½ seasons on the often frigid shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland had him prepared for Friday night. And he was right.
In conditions slightly worse than barbaric - for a baseball game, anyway - Sabathia looked more than comfortable, pitching eight strong innings in leading the Yankees to a 4-1 victory over the Angels in ALCS Game 1 at Yankee Stadium.
"It was cold, I mean, but I'm used to pitching in the cold weather,'' Sabathia said. "You know, playing in Cleveland for so long. You just go out there and deal with it.''
Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday night, though the forecast for that game is worse than it was for Friday's.
Sabathia, hearing boisterous chants of "CC! CC!" as the game wore on, allowed four hits, a walk and one run. He threw 113 pitches and struck out seven.
"It was about as cold as it gets,'' Sabathia said. "I pitched a couple of games where it snowed in Cleveland. But it was pretty nasty today.''
Said Derek Jeter, "We couldn't have asked for anything better. He went out there, pitched eight innings, gave up one run, worked quick. It was pretty cold out there. You really didn't want to stay out there too long.''
Mariano Rivera walked Torii Hunter to start the ninth before earning his 36th career postseason save.
In terms of the weather, about the only thing missing was lake effect snow, another charm of the Cleveland lakefront. Sabathia delivered his first pitch to Chone Figgins, a 92-mph strike, in a steady drizzle with the temperature at 45 degrees. Winds gusted at 15 to 20 mph, and though the rain stopped, the temperature dropped.
Players from both teams looked miserable in their assortment of long sleeves, pullovers and ear-flap caps. But it was the Angels who played miserably, committing three physical errors (and one mental one) to the Yankees' none. Said Mark Teixeira, "Yeah, they gave us some help, but it's tough to play in these conditions, it really is, and defense is sometimes even tougher than offense.''
In four postseason games, Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte are 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 27 innings. Sabathia has allowed one earned run in 142/3 innings, walking one and striking out 15.
Said Pettitte, "He makes it look that easy. It's amazing.''
If Yankees manager Joe Girardi intends to use Sabathia on three days' rest in Game 4, a big key for the Yankees was that Game 1 was played Friday. Regardless of the weather Saturday night, Game 4 will not be played before Tuesday, giving Sabathia the opportunity to make two more starts if this series goes seven games. Said Sabathia, "I'm feeling pretty good. I got the rest in September. So I'm feeling fine physically.''
Said Girardi, "We didn't play for four days and I thought we played extremely well. I thought our at-bats were really good. I thought we pitched extremely well and I thought we played defense extremely well. There are conditions that you have to deal with. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not really too concerned because we played tonight. Hopefully, we get tomorrow's game in. But if we don't, we don't.''
The Yankees got to John Lackey - who allowed nine hits and four runs, two earned, in 52/3 innings - in the first. Jeter led off with an opposite-field single and Johnny Damon poked an opposite-field single down the leftfield line. Damon took second when Juan Rivera's throw went to the middle of the diamond, leaving second uncovered.
Teixeira swung at a 3-and-0 pitch and lofted a fly ball to left, too short to allow Jeter to score. But Alex Rodriguez sent one to center that was deep enough to bring in Jeter, making it 1-0.
Rodriguez is 6-for-13 with two walks and seven RBIs in four 2009 postseason games.
Hideki Matsui then provided one of the evening's strangest plays when he skied a pop-up that third baseman Chone Figgins and shortstop Erick Aybar each could have fielded . . . but didn't. Both seemed to expect the other to make the catch, and the ball landed in front of Aybar on the edge of the infield grass. Damon scored to make it 2-0.
With one out in the fourth, Vladimir Guerrero crushed a 2-and-2 pitch to left-center. Sabathia and Guerrero reacted as if the ball was gone, as did Damon in leftfield, but the ball, pushed back by a strong wind blowing in from left, short-hopped the wall instead. Kendry Morales' two-out single to left made it 2-1.
Said Teixeira, "I think Vlady crushed that ball to left-center and it didn't get out. So when it's cold like this, the wind's blowing in, you're not going to get much out.''
Damon doubled to left-center to start the fifth. After Teixeira struck out, Rodriguez walked and Matsui slapped a double to left-center to make it 3-1.
When Rivera slipped fielding the ball in the gap, Rob Thomson, the Yankees' aggressive third-base coach, initially waved Rodriguez around but put up the stop sign at the last moment. A-Rod kept going and catcher Jeff Mathis held on to Aybar's relay throw after Rodriguez plowed into him - though not violently - for the second out.
"Yeah,'' A-Rod said about missing the stop sign. "Once I saw the go, I put my head down, and it was my mistake.''
Jeter added an RBI single in the sixth, driving in Melky Cabrera, who had worked a two-out walk and advanced on Lackey's error on a pickoff throw.
Said Pettitte, who will start Game 3 in Anaheim: "I just think we're playing with so much confidence right now. We just feel good about how everything's going . . . But we know we have a lot of work left."
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