CC's best doesn't seem to scare Red Sox

BOSTON

CC Sabathia sure showed the Red Sox, didn't he?

Good slider. Good fastball. Good changeup. Toughness with runners on base. Ten strikeouts in all against the second-best offensive team in baseball, and the best club that Sabathia faces (since his Yankees pace the majors in runs scored).

In all, the staff ace, the horse, put on a virtuoso performance Tuesday night at Fenway Park, throwing a season-high 128 pitches . . . just to complete six innings.

Yes, even when Sabathia finally defeated the Red Sox, leading the Yankees to an intense 5-2 victory after losing his first four starts against them this season, his performance said as much about the American League East leaders as it did about the big lefty.

"That's what that club does," Joe Girardi said, referring to Boston's ability to run Sabathia out after just six innings.

"It's a good lineup," Sabathia said, "and they put good at-bats together.

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Sabathia now has a 6.39 ERA in five starts this season against the AL East leaders, after dropping his first four matchups. In his other 24 starts, totaling 180 innings, he has a 2.40 ERA.

Overall, with an 18-7 record and a 2.99 ERA, Sabathia has put together his third straight excellent campaign in his third season with the Yankees. Yet his consistent 2011 failures against the Red Sox raised the stakes on this series opener.

"That's all you guys kept talking about," he smilingly told reporters after the game.

He went to full counts on five batters, and he allowed two or more baserunners in each of the first five innings. In all, the Red Sox totaled 10 hits and two walks against him.

With runners in scoring position, however, the Bosox picked up just one hit in six at-bats and drew two walks. It proved insufficient on a night when the Yankees gave their guy enough offensive support. "He made good pitches, and he got out of tough situations when he had to," Girardi said. "That's CC."

Girardi watched the final out from the clubhouse, as third-base umpire Mark Wegner tossed the Yankees' skipper after he challenged Wegner's ruling that Boston's Jarrod Saltalamacchi was hit by a Mariano Rivera pitch. Replays appeared to back up Girardi's contention that Saltalamacchia swung at the pitch.

Awaiting Girardi was his pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, who earned an ejection in the seventh, following a bench-clearing skirmish prompted by John Lackey's drilling of Francisco Cervelli. Which was very likely prompted by Cervelli's dramatic clap upon rounding the bases following his fifth-inning homer.

Got all that? It was a busy night, and Sabathia stood out as the Yankees' calm yet passionate front man. The Game 1 starting pitcher, come October. The guy who did the best he could to help out his bullpen on a night when Girardi wanted to rest David Robertson.

A Yankees-Red Sox ALCS, which we haven't seen since 2004, is hardly a guarantee. Both the Rangers and the Tigers, the other two likely playoff entries, present significant challenges. Detroit has ace Justin Verlander, who is the favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award, while Texas possesses arguably the deepest starting rotation in the league.

If the Northeast rivals overcome first-round opponents, then Sabathia will get his toughest assignment yet against the Red Sox. If he struggles as he has in three of his five starts versus Boston this season, the Yankees won't have much of a chance to make the World Series.

No team will scare Sabathia. Yet it's clearer than ever that Sabathia won't scare the Red Sox, either.