Sabathia's mediocre outing still tops Royals, 4-3

CC Sabathia has had sharper outings, starts with better fastball command and a more devastating sinker.

But has often been the case this year, a not-at-his-best Sabathia is still good enough to beat most teams, certainly the case with the Royals Thursday night in a 4-3 victory at Kauffman Stadium.

Sabathia allowed 10 hits and three runs in 82/3 innings. He improved his record to 15-5 and matched Tampa’s David Price for most victories in the American League.

David Robertson, brought in to get the final out, allowed a two-run double by Willie Bloomquist to cut the Yankees’ lead to 4-3. Wilson Betemit then reached on an infield single, but Robertson struck out Jason Kendall for the final out.

The win allowed the Yankees (71-43) to increase their lead over the idle Rays to two games and to six games over the Red Sox, who lost in Toronto.

The Yankees had 10 hits, including three by Nick Swisher. They got two hits each from Curtis Granderson, in his first start since reworking his swing with hitting coach Kevin Long, Austin Kearns, who hit his first home run since joining the Yankees before the trade deadline, and Derek Jeter.

It was a sticky night in Kansas City, one that featured a first-pitch temperature of 94 degrees with a heat index of 106, oppressive enough to cause Royals centerfielder Gregor Blanco to leave the game in the fifth inning with heat exhaustion.

Royals starter Bruce Chen left shortly after that, pulled after allowing a leadoff single to Marcus Thames, one of the heroes in the Yankees’ comeback win against Texas Wednesday night. Chen didn’t pitch poorly, allowing three runs and eight hits, but his offense couldn’t get anything off Sabathia beyond a single run in the fourth that trimmed the Royals’ deficit to 3-1. Chen (7-6) escaped trouble in the first when Swisher smacked a one-out single to left but was picked off — officially scored as a caught stealing 1-3 — for the second out.

The Royals (47-68) put two on in the first when Kendall delivered a one-out single and designated hitter Kila Ka’aihue dumped a shattered-bat single into center, but Sabathia got out of the inning when Yuniesky Betancourt flew to center.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the second when Robinson Cano walked with one out, went to second on Kearns’ single, then scored on Granderson’s single to center. Granderson talked before the game about the work he and Long started in Texas trying to shorten the outfielder’s swing and there were immediate dividends last night.

Jeter led off the third with an infield single and Swisher followed with his second single of the night, a grounder to right, which moved Jeter to third. Mark Teixeira, starting after missing the two games in Texas to be with his wife as she gave birth to the couple’s third child, got Jeter home with a sacrifice fly to center, making it 2-0.

Kearns hit his first home run since joining the Yankees with one out in the fourth, a solo shot to left that was his ninth of the season, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Granderson followed with a double, jumping on Chen’s first pitch, but he was stranded at second.

Sabathia retired Ka’aihue and Betancourt to start the fourth but the Royals got consecutive hits — a double by Alex Gordon and Mike Aviles’ RBI single — to make it 3-1.