To be honest with you, these Saturday night games are not my favorite. After spending all time bumming around Brooklyn, I’m ready to go out, and yet, as I write this at around 5:30, the game hasn’t started yet. Such are the demands of a national TV schedule.
Anyway, CC Sabathia will take the mound tonight in Cleveland. After 117 home starts for the Indians, this is the first time Sabathia will be on the mound in his road grays. In those starts, he has thrown 747 innings with a 3.84 ERA. So far, May has been kind to Sabathia. Over his last four outings, he is averaging 8 innings per appearance and has a 1.69 ERA. He has 24 strikeouts in 32 innings, and opponents are hitting just .183/.223/.243 off the Yankee ace.
For the Indians, Fausto Carmona takes the hill. Yankee fans remember him most from his nine inning, three hit effort against the Bombers in the ill-fated 2007 ALDS. Recently, however, he has been far more pedestrian. On the season, he is 2-4 with a 6.42 ERA. Carmona has walked three more than he has struck out and is coming off a 1.1-inning appearance last week against the Rays. In his career against the Yanks, Carmona is 1-1 with a 4.61 ERA. While this one looks like a laugher on paper, I’m not going to count my baseball chickens before they hatch.
No matter the outcome of this game, though, the Yankees will stay in first place. The Blue Jays scored two runs off Ramon Ramirez in the bottom of the 7th and held on to beat the Red Sox 5-3 in Toronto earlier today. With that loss, the Red Sox fell to 23-22 against non-Yankee opponents.
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Gardner CF
And on the mound, the big man, number 52, CC Sabathia.