CC Sabathia gets beaten up by Rays in 10-3 loss
He may have been the first pitcher to win 20 games this season, but his first attempt at 21 wins left something to be desired.
The ace of the New York Yankees gave up a season high seven runs as the Tampa Bay Rays won 10-3 to take the final two games of the four game series between division rivals.
Yankees starter CC Sabathia started off looking as good as ever making the Rays work for the one run they got in the third inning with a trio of singles. In the sixth inning though he looked nothing like the Cy Young candidate that he is, giving up four hits
and two walks before eventually getting replaced by Joba Chamberlain.
“I’m supposed to be able to go out there and put up zeros. I wasn’t able to do that in the sixth,” Sabathia said. “It’s disappointing, especially after the guys had scratched out a lead for me.”
To compound the problem for the Yankees, the Rays had a Cy Young candidate of their own on the mound in David Price. Price was not as sharp as usual either giving up four walks and eight hits in six innings of work, but held the Yankees to just three runs.
Two of them came off a home run by Marcus Thames in the second inning; nine runners ended up getting stranded on base.
New York will have the tougher road of the two over the remaining games in the regular season with six against the Boston Red Sox and three against the Toronto Blue Jays. Tampa Bay on the other hand plays three against the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles
followed by four against the Kansas City Royals.
Mark Teixeira does not plan on letting the schedule be an excuse.
“We have a chance to finish it off. We’ll just have to work a little harder,” he said. “We can’t complain about having a tougher schedule because if that’s the case we don’t belong in the playoffs anyway.”
With the loss the Yankees fell to 92-61 on the season and saw their lead over the Rays go back to a half game, like it was on Monday before the four game series between the two teams began.
Andy Pettitte is scheduled to take the mound Friday in the first game of a three game series with the Red Sox. Josh Beckett will do so for Boston.
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