At one point in the fifth inning of the Yanks’ Monday night affair against the Braves, the Bombers had yet to get a hit, and CC found himself in a spot of trouble. When a potential double play ball ricochetted off of Sabathia’s glove, the Braves found their inning still alive. A Michael Bourn single scored a run, but CC allowed just one more hit over the final four frames. The Yanks’ bats came alive, and the winning streak reached 10.
With the Yanks rolling as they’ve rolled since 2005, it’s gotten easy to enjoy their play. After a weekend of sweeping the Nats even without much hitting with runners in scoring position, Derek Jeter capitalized with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 5th as the Yanks took a lead they would not relinquish. Home runs by Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano gave the team a nice cushion, and CC cruised through the ninth.
For the Big Man, it was his eighth Yankee complete game and another double-digit strike out effort. He struck out Jason Heyward on a nasty slider to end the game and kept the streak alive. “You don’t think about it when you’re out there,” he said, “but you don’t want to be that guy. You’re watching everybody have good starts. We all pull for each other, and push each other, so you don’t want to be the guy to mess that up.”
So the Yankees are now 20-4 over their last 24 games, and they’ve won 10 in a row, all against teams above .500. With R.A. Dickey — CC’s next opponent on Sunday — stifling the Orioles for another one-hitter, the Yanks gained a game on second-place Baltimore as well. The team hopes this one goes to 11 tomorrow night when Hiroki Kuroda and Tim Hudson face off for the second time in a week. What a run it’s been lately. Can the Yankees keep playing the NL clubs forever?
As always, ESPN has the box score. The Fangraphs chart follows.
Source: FanGraphs
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