Yanks hit homer after homer to finally get CC first win
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With his first win of the season secured, CC Sabathia stood inside the door to the Yankees' clubhouse and waited to fist bump those who helped him stop the longest losing streak of his stellar career.
One by one, the Yankees entered the room, happy the popular lefty no longer had a zero in the win column.
"He is as big a leader as there is on this team,'' Chase Headley said of Sabathia following an 11-5 Yankees victory over the Rays on Monday night in front of a sparse gathering of 10,619 at Tropicana Field. "He is loved in here.''
Working with rare run support fueled by a season-high five homers, Sabathia won for the first time since April 24, 2014 in Boston.
"It was bothering me more that we weren't winning the games I started,'' Sabathia said when asked about being annoyed he hadn't won a game until the middle of May. The Yankees were 1-5 in Sabathia's previous six starts.
In seven innings Sabathia gave up four runs (three earned), six hits and fanned a season-high nine. He is 1-5 and there is hope he won't have to wait nearly as long for the second win as the first (seven games).
The home-run onslaught included Alex Rodriguez, Headley, the suddenly hot Carlos Beltran, Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira. Headley and Gardner each clubbed three-run homers.
"He has pitched better than the numbers show,'' Gardner said of Sabathia. "It felt great to get him a few runs early.''
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An uncharacteristic problem with control surfaced in the first inning, when Sabathia walked the first two hitters and needed a fine relay throw from shortstop Didi Gregorius to keep the Rays from scoring more than one run in the frame.
"I did," Gregorius said when asked if he thought he had a play on Steven Sourza Jr. at the plate after Logan Forsythe doubled, "because he went all the way back to second thinking Gardy was going to catch the ball.
"I was peeking.''
Gregorius ended the game by snaring the final out after Tim Beckham's fly ball to left hit a catwalk in play and caromed to the shortstop in short left field.
Sabathia, who was 12-14 lifetime against the Rays and 5-13 as a Yankee, couldn't downplay the importance of keeping the damage to a run in the first inning after those first two walks.
"It was a big play to get that out. I was trying to settle into the inning,'' Sabathia said. "It was a huge play at the time.''
Buoyed by Gregorius' strong and accurate throw, Sabathia retired 11 in a row. Back-to-back homers by Forsythe and Joey Butler fueled a three-run seventh for the Rays and stained Sabathia's night.
"The three runs didn't hurt us but it put a damper on it for me,'' Sabathia said.
The Yankees' eighth win in 11 games pushed their AL East lead to four lengths and improved their record to 21-12. It was the Yankees' sixth win in seven games against the Rays this season.
Brian McCann, who helped Sabathia navigate the rocky start, believed Sabathia's first victory should have been his third or fourth.
"He is one of the best pitchers of our era,'' McCann said of Sabathia, who tied Vida Blue for 25th on the all-time left-hander's list with his 209th victory. "We were glad to get him a win tonight.''
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