C. C. Sabathia cruises to 19th win, Yankees thrash Athletics 5 – 0
When Carsten Charles Sabathia features in any New York Yankees game, it has to be said that the hitters will most likely produce nothing out of the player’s pitches. The Oakland Athletics were not the only team to face the brunt of Sabathia’s wrath. If one could think their tenure in the Yankee Stadium tour was already turning out to be a wreck, the experienced left arm ball thrower made the journey much worse. Nevertheless, last night’s encounter was a memorable one to remember and there were 44,644 fans in the stands to witness history in the making.
The Oakland side have been under some serious pressure, lately. They were unable to down the Yankees in the series and they faced a match to save them from a clean sweep. Trailing the Texas Rangers in the West division had been hard and last night’s defeat made it worse. They brought in Dallas Braden for the encounter and his Earning Run Average of 3.23 was a comfortable record to feature. However, the 27-year old pitcher was unable to make his mark on the game as Sabathia stole the show. The pitcher walked off with 4 strike outs and 79 pitches in the 5 innings of play. Furthermore he conceded just 2 hits, 1 run and 2 walks.
Sabathia was the pick for New York and the heat didn’t stop the Yankee beast from clinching his 16th straight win in the Yankee stadium and the 19th victory of the season. He’s most likely to cross 20 this season and last night’s game saw some awesome pitching exhibition from the player. The ball thrower pitched 95 times and struck out 5 hitters in the process in his 8 innings of play. In addition, he gave away just one hit and a walk during the entire match.
Sabathia shined for the Yankees so much that he allowed just one hit in his 8 innings of play. So what were the A’s going to do against the mighty Yanks? The truth was that the Oakland hitters were never capable of dealing with the star pitcher. And it came as no surprise when the home team advanced through the match with significant runs on the board.
The Yankees pounced on the A’s early on, as Jorge Posada got into the action in the bottom 3rd with a stunning 405 feet homer to the left. Marcus Thames struck out earlier and the .265 batting average hitter made his way in to bang his 17th home run of the season. The move got the Yankees on top of the Athletics and the fixture just opened up for both teams.
With the Yankees on top of Oakland with a 1 – 0 lead, the action followed into the bottom 6th when pitcher Dallas Braden was relieved off his pitching duties after hitting Derek Jeter with the pitch. Jerry Blevins was the pick from the bullpen and he made his way to face Curtis Granderson, who has been phenomenal in his recent days. After getting Jeter out on second, for a second base stealing attempt, the Athletics were put through the sword as Curtis drilled his 17th home run of the season, 368 feet to the right. The hit was all it took to get the hosts further on runs.
More runs followed in the bottom 7th as Granderson was involved again. Derek Jeter was on the first base following a grounder to shortstop earlier. Curtis then made it 4 – 0 for the Yankees when the strong hitter purged reliever, Michael Wuertz, for a 345-feet homer to the right. The A’s were now in a tough spot and Sabathia was not going to let the visitors settle in the strike zone. The bottom 8th marked the last inning in which the Yanks scored and it was Justin James, who got on the receiving end this time. Lance Berkman was on the second base and Posada was on the first. Austin Kearns provided the team with another scoring opportunity when he singled to the shallow left. That was all the chance Berkman needed to cross the last base for the 5th of the match.
The Yankees beat the A’s 5 – 0 and it came with a precious series sweep. The athletics would be disappointed with the result and will be hoping to get things back in order in the coming series fixtures against the Los Angeles Angels.
Tags: