NEW YORK _ CC Sabathia's farewell tour has had a couple of detours. Like the three-game losing streak, ending with a short and ineffective start against the White Sox less than a week ago.
That's all forgotten now.
What's fresh in the minds of the Yankees and their fans is Sabathia's milestone performance against Tampa Bay on Wednesday. His 250th career victory, a 12-1 win in which he allowed one run and three hits in six innings, was a turn-back-the-clock effort by the 19-year veteran who has decided that this will be his last season.
Granted, Sabathia doesn't throw much heat anymore, but he can more than hold his own for up to six innings when he has a feel for his other pitches.
He had the feel as the Yankees completed the sweep of second-place Tampa Bay and extended their winning streak to five games, in anticipation of Western Division-leading Houston coming in for a four-game series that begins Thursday night.
Sabathia (4-4) struck out seven, including a run of four straight that began in the third inning and ended with the first out in the fourth. He finished by striking out Brandon Lowe, the last batter he faced.
Of course, CC benefitted from a six-run first inning, featuring a three-run homer by Gary Sanchez, his 21st of the season. Sanchez later doubled in a run in the seventh inning _ another six-run inning that was highlighted by an RBI single by Edwin Encarnacion and a grand slam by Gleyber Torres that further excited the matinee crowd of 41,144.
As for Sabathia, he leads all active pitchers with 3,043 strikeouts; 250 wins; 3,533 innings pitched, and 315 quality starts.
The first inning was a nightmare for reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. He had no command of his pitches, walking four in one-third of an inning and throwing only 19 strikes in his 39 pitches.
An infield single by DJ LeMahieu and a walk to Luke Voit were signs of concern before Sanchez drove a 3-1 pitch into the right-center-field seats for a 3-0 Yankee lead.
The Yankees weren't done, but Snell (4-6) was after he walked three of the next four batters. Relief pitcher Colin Poche wasn't much better. His 2-2 pitch hit Gio Urshela in the leg and forced in a run. LeMahieu, the best hitter in the majors when runners are in scoring position, delivered a two-out, two-run single up the middle, the exclamation point In the six-run outburst.
Wildness cost Sabathia in the fifth inning after he walked Ji-Man Choi and Daniel Robertson, the Nos. 8 and 9 in Tampa's lineup, with one out. He retired Travis D'Arnaud, the former Met, on an infield pop-up, but Tommy Pham ruined his shutout bid with a bloop double into right field. With runners on second and third, Sabathia escaped further damage by retiring Austin Meadows on a fly to medium left field.
When Sabathia struck out Lowe to end the sixth inning, Torres and several other teammates were waiting for him by the dugout to shake his hand for a job well done.
Sanchez's homer extended the Yankees' streak of consecutive games with at least one home run to 22. The franchise record is 25, set by the 1941 Yankees, In the middle of Joe DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak.
The Yankees have not been shut out in 155 consecutive games, the second-longest in club history. But they've got a long way to go to overtake the 1931-33 Yankees, who in a two-year span weren't blanked for a major league record 308 consecutive games.
The second-place Rays came to town a half game behind the Yankees, but left a season-high 3 { games back. They've lost seven of nine games and still must play Oakland and Minnesota as part of a 10-game, 11-day road trip.
The Yankees are 7-2, including 5-1 at Yankee Stadium, against the Rays. Which is nothing new for Tampa Bay. The Rays have lost 10 of their last 13 games against the Yankees and are 6-19 at Yankee Stadium since the start of the 2017 season. They have lost 14 of their last 15 series in NYC and have lost 14 straight series openers in the Bronx.
