“C.C. Sabathia is the best I have seen,” says Joe Mauer – MLB Update
In an interview with a leading sports website, Minnesota Twins’ Joe Mauer stated that Yankees’ ace C.C. Sabathia is the one of the best pitchers he has ever seen. Yankees left Target Field on Wednesday with two wins in three games and Sabathia played a key
role in deciding the outcome of the series.
After Twins beat the Yankees comfortably in Game 2, they had an excellent chance to win a season series against their mighty American League rivals for the first time since 2001 but that did not turn out to be the case as Sabathia simply did not give them
any chance.
The left hander showed just what he is capable of as he gave up just six hits and two runs in eight innings to make quick work of Twins’ batting line-up. Striking-out ten batters, he created all sorts of problems for Minnesota’s hitters.
"That's the best I've seen him, and I've been watching him for a long time," Mauer said. "He was using both sides of the plate. Fastball, slider, sinker. He threw me everything, and everything was working."
"I think my fastball command is really where it starts, and me being able to spot it up makes a big difference," Sabathia said. "Being able to go in and come away with it, I got some big strikeouts. Being able to command that definitely helps."
Sabathia struck out Joe Mauer three times during the contest, including a three pitch third strike-out. Mauer, who is the second leading hitter in the American League, was extremely pleased with what he saw from the veteran. Twins’ catcher rarely swings
on the first pitch but he was put under so much pressure by Sabathia that he swung on his first pitch in the eighth inning.
"Let's go to Toronto and see what happens there," Yankees’ first baseman Nick Swisher said through a wide grin.
Mauer paid the price as he grounded out. Surely, he will not break the rules again. Sabathia is 14-6 with 3.42 ERA this season and it will be interesting to see if he can take his impressive form into the playoffs.
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