Sabathia goes eight as Yankees beat Red Sox, 5-2

The afternoon certainly started inauspiciously enough for the Yankees. And CC Sabathia's day didn't begin all that well, either.

But on a strange day, one that began with their cleanup hitter getting injured in a freak batting-practice incident, the Yankees rode Sabathia's best outing in a month and some timely hitting to a 5-2 victory over the Red Sox Saturday in front of 49,716 at the Stadium.

The Yankees (68-41) increased their AL East lead to 1½ games over Tampa Bay and six games over the Red Sox.

Even without Alex Rodriguez - injured in batting practice when Lance Berkman smashed a one-hopper off his lower left leg - the Yankees had five runs and eight hits off John Lackey (10-7).

After allowing two second-inning runs that put the Yankees in a 2-0 hole, Sabathia (14-5) shut out the Red Sox in his final six innings. He allowed six hits, walking one and striking out four in earning his 150th career win.

Sabathia said yesterday's circumstances - losing on Friday night, A-Rod out of the lineup, Andy Pettitte on the disabled list, Sabathia himself 1-2 in four starts since the All-Star break - didn't increase the pressure.

"We know we have [Pettitte] down, that we have to pick up the slack and this is a big series, but I always feel like I need to go out and pitch the way I did today," said Sabathia, whose wife, Amber, had their fourth child Thursday.

Said Joe Girardi: "He just found it. Maybe it was the extra day's rest that helped him. Hard to say . . . CC, he's gonna struggle from time to time, but they're usually pretty short."

"You have your horse on the mound and you want to win games when he's on the mound," said Jorge Posada, whose RBI single - the Yankees' fourth straight two-out hit - produced a 4-2 lead in the fifth. "It's important for us to get him enough runs that he can get a win out there."

Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth to record his 23rd save of the season and the 50th against Boston of his career.

Curtis Granderson, who entered the day in a 1-for-17 slump, had two hits, including an RBI triple, and scored two runs. With A-Rod out, Robinson Cano batted cleanup and had two hits, including an RBI single, and Ramiro Peña played third, hit ninth and drove in two runs.

Rodriguez suffered a contusion and X-rays were negative. "I don't know," he said of his availability for tonight. "I can't tell you that. I have to wake up. First thing I'll do is call Joe and Geno and let them know how I feel."

After a nine-pitch first inning, Sabathia had a rough second. Victor Martinez, his former batterymate with the Indians, opened the inning by driving a 3-and-1 pitch to left-center for his 10th homer. Adrian Beltre and Mike Lowell added consecutive doubles to make it 2-0.

The Yankees tied it in the bottom of the inning on Granderson's RBI triple and Peña's RBI groundout, and Sabathia was in command after that.

"He's just so consistent," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Sabathia. "He commands and competes so well. There's nothing he does different. You know what's coming, you just have to hit it."

And after the second inning, the Sox didn't do much of that.