Sabathia's gem is wasted by pen

CC Sabathia had all but hand-delivered a "W."

He had the Minnesota Twins on the ropes, dazed and confused by his crafty combination of pitches. But in the end, his brilliance was an afterthought in the wake of a maddening performance by the bullpen.

The Yankees were cruising behind Sabathia, who retired his last 17 batters in a row. But for the second straight outing, the lefty walked away with a no-decision.

A 5-4, 10-inning loss was the last thing he expected. "But that's baseball, so anything can happen," said the Yankees' ace, who gave up only two hits, struck out six and walked one in seven shutout innings.

Aside from issuing a walk to Joe Mauer in the first and giving up back-to-back base hits to Jason Kubel and Danny Valencia in the third, the Twins' lineup couldn't touch Sabathia. But the Twins lit up reliever Rafael Soriano for four runs in just two-thirds of an inning.

"Yeah of course [it's disappointing]," Sabathia said. "But the bullpen is really the strength of our team and nine times out of 10, they're going to come in and shut the door."

The starter said he had a feeling his evening was over when he walked off the mound in the seventh. Despite the chilly air, he felt "great," but he didn't challenge manager Joe Girardi's decision to yank him after a 104-pitch output.

"I know Joe and how he is early in the season and trying to protect us," Sabathia said. "When you have a bullpen like ours, it's easy to turn the ball over."

Asked if he considered leaving his starting pitcher in, Girardi said no.

"You have to be smart about him," he said. "We have a long ways to go. This isn't August or September, this is early April."

Delmon Young delivered the big blow for the Twins when his bases-clearing pop fly landed in front of a sliding Nick Swisher in right and tied the score at 4 with two outs in the eighth.

"Any loss is tough, especially when you have the lead late in the game like that," catcher Russell Martin said. "But [you feel] especially bad for CC, who threw a tremendous game."

Though he's still seeking his first win of the season, Sabathia -- who gave up three runs (two earned) six hits and struck out seven in the Yankees' 6-3 Opening Day win over Detroit -- said he feels much better than he did a year ago.

"Just being able to command my pitches, use both sides of the plate,'' he said. "I've been feeling pretty good so far this year."