Sabathia earns 16th victory

CHICAGO -- Scary thing is, this usually is the time of year CC Sabathia really gets it going.

Sabathia, though nowhere near as dominant as he had been in his most recent start, continued what's shaping up as a career-best season in the Yankees' 3-2 victory over the White Sox Monday night in front of 24,142 at U.S. Cellular Field.

Sabathia matched a season high by allowing 10 hits but limited the damage to two runs in eight innings in improving to 16-5 with a 2.55 ERA. He leads the majors in wins.

When Sabathia won the AL Cy Young Award in 2007, he was 19-7, 3.21. Last season he went 21-7, 3.18.

"A true ace,'' Joe Girardi said. "He knows how to pitch when he's got his great stuff and he knows how to pitch when he doesn't have his great stuff, and that's what he did tonight.''

The lefthander, who improved to 7-1 with a 1.01 ERA in his last eight games and 9-1 with a 1.76 ERA in his last 11, is on the kind of roll he usually gets on in August. In Sabathia's last seven Augusts -- counting this start -- he is 26-3 with a 2.36 ERA.

Monday night's victory, one in which Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth for his 28th save as the Yankees (65-42) pulled within a game of the Red Sox, didn't compare to Sabathia's previous outing. Not much could.

Last Tuesday against Seattle, Sabathia struck out a career-high 14 and retired the first 19 batters before Brendan Ryan broke up his bid for a perfect game with one out in the seventh.

"I had to battle a little bit,'' said Sabathia, who struck out six, walked none and repeatedly pitched out of trouble. "I didn't think my slider was as sharp. It was kind of just floating up there.''

The White Sox went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and got on the board as the result of one swing, Alexei Ramirez's two-run homer on a fourth-inning changeup. That cut Chicago's deficit to 3-2.

Sabathia twice struck out Adam Dunn, who is 3-for-77 against lefthanders this season, to end innings with a runner on. Dunn, signed to a four-year, $56-million free-agent contract in the offseason, went 0-for-4, lowering his average to .162 and on-base percentage to .295. He struck out three times, giving him 137 (in only 314 at-bats), second-most in baseball.

"You know he's having a tough year,'' Sabathia said. "But you don't want to make mistakes, you don't want to give in, you don't want to get lazy and make a pitch you'll regret.''

Sabathia benefited most of all from three inning-ending double plays -- two on line drives -- that helped keep Chicago off the board and his pitch count down. "They were huge,'' he said.

The Yankees scored twice in the first and once in the third against Jake Peavy. Curtis Granderson had an RBI double and scored on Robinson Cano's single in the first, and the centerfielder doubled and scored on Cano's double-play ball in the third.

Granderson leads the major leagues with 96 runs scored -- 15 more than runner-up Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox -- and is tied with Mark Teixeira for the team lead with 79 RBIs.

Peavy (4-5, 5.13) actually was very good after that, allowing those three runs, eight hits and one walk in seven innings. Peavy didn't allow a runner to reach second after the fourth and retired the last 10 he faced.

But he wasn't a match for Sabathia who, far from his best, was plenty good enough.

"He gets outs, that's what CC does,'' Girardi said. "And even when his stuff is not his 'A' stuff, he's still going to pitch well.''