CC dominant as Yankees crush O’s

At long last, the Yankees actually played a baseball game on Saturday. Two scheduled off days and a rain out made the week drag on, but the bats certainly didn’t show any rust. There’s only so much you can say about a game like this, so let’s quickly recap…

• Holy offense. New York put 15 runs on the board, including a pair of homers from Russell Martin and a grand slam from Alex Rodriguez. Brett Gardner even got in on the action and put one over the fence. How about that?
• CC Sabathia was the man tonight, making one bad pitch out of the 103 he threw. That’s the pitch Adam Jones hit for a three-run homer, but aside from that he was on cruise control, striking out seven and allowing six hits. The television gun had him up to 99 but PitchFX disagrees; the system had him topping out at 95.5 mph. Sabathia got 15 swings and misses in his eight innings of work, which is a ton in a single game. Oh, and he finally got his first win.
• Other offensive notables: Derek Jeter singled and walked, Mark Teixeira singled, doubled, and walked twice, and Robinson Cano chipped in three hits. Jorge Posada’s three-true outcomes season continued with a homer and three strikeouts in five plate appearances. Gardner also chipped in a double, so good for him.
• Orioles’ reliever Josh Rupe threw at Martin after his second homer, hitting him up between his shoulder blades. That was followed by Gardner’s homer but not a retaliation plunk by mop-up man Buddy Carlyle. Martin said afterward that he had a knot in his back and Rupe knocked it out for him, which was pretty awesome. Gardner going deep immediately afterwards is the best payback a Yankees’ fan could ask for.
• A-Rod’s grand slam was the 22nd of his career, and he’s now one behind Lou Gehrig for the all-time record. His six RBI moved him past Carl Yastrzemski for sole possession of 12th most in baseball history.
• Here’s the lopsided WPA Graph, and here’s the box score and video highlights.

Quick turn around, these two teams will play the second game of this improvised two-game series tomorrow afternoon at 1pm ET. Freddy Garcia goes against Jake Arrieta.