CLEVELAND _ CC Sabathia was 9-0 during the regular season in 10 starts following a Yankees loss. He did his best to make it 10-0 on Friday in Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Indians.
Sabathia was cruising with an 8-3 lead and had thrown 77 pitches when manager Joe Girardi removed him with one out in the sixth inning.
Sabathia had retired 12 of 13 batters _ Carlos Santana walked to open the sixth _ and had just gotten red-hot Jay Bruce on a liner to short when Girardi popped out of the dugout and called in Chad Green from the bullpen.
Two of the three runs Sabathia had given up to that point were unearned because of errors by third baseman Todd Frazier in the first and second innings.
Girardi's move backfired as Green allowed the Indians to load the bases and gave up a two-out grand slam to Francisco Lindor to bring Cleveland within 8-7.
The Indians tied the score in the eighth on Bruce's home run off David Robertson, and the score remained 8-8 until Yan Gomes' RBI single in the 13th gave the Indians a 9-8 victory and a 2-0 series lead.
Sabathia, the 37-year-old former Yankees ace, is no stranger to pitching deep into games in the postseason. In fact, Girardi said watching Sabathia's performance as a member of the Brewers in the 2008 stretch run and postseason was one of the reasons he wanted the Yankees to sign the lefthander before the 2009 season.
"CC really came on my radar when he went to Milwaukee," Girardi said. "And what I was most impressed was this was a guy who was awaiting a huge payday but was willing to sacrifice everything for the team and to try to win in Milwaukee, pitching on short rest a number of times. To me, I thought, 'Man, this is the kind of guy that you want. This is the guy that's willing to do anything, and it's all about winning.' So that's when I fell in love with who he was as a player. As a person, it was once I got around him and seeing what he meant to our club.
"But reinventing himself [as a pitcher], it's not always easy. There's been pitchers that have done it before, but he's really had to do it. It's been incredible to watch and how important he's been to us. Especially, you know, I look at this year, in a lot of instances where we needed a win, it was CC."
The Yankees needed a win on Friday to avoid going down 0-2 in the best-of-five series. Girardi didn't stay with Sabathia, and it cost him.
