Veteran left-hander #Cc Sabathia pitched eight scoreless frames to carry the #New York Yankees to an 8-0 rout of the #Boston Red Sox Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
Sabathia improved to 7-2 after giving up five hits with no walks and five strikeouts in just 95 pitches as the Yankees (33-23) padded their lead in the AL East to two games over the Red Sox. It was the longest outing for Sabathia since April 2015 when he retired the last 12 batters he faced.
"There's a long way to go, but it feels good to be contributing," Sabathia told MLB.com. "That's the biggest thing.
These guys have been playing well. It's a young team, we've been playing really good. You just want to be a part of it."
New York manager Joe Girardi praised Sabathia’s performance, calling it him a key to the Yankees' success while they still in a quandary about the struggles of their main ace Masahiro Tanaka.
The Yankees rocked Rick Porcello for six runs and eight hits over 6 1/3 innings, dropping him to 3-8 on the season as the Red Sox slipped to 32-26.
Porcello, who won the Cy Young last season after going 22-4, had two walks with five strikeouts in 103 pitches for the Red Sox, who are now 15-16 on the road.
Didi Gregorius put New York on the board in the third inning with a solo homer and Chris Carter added a three-run shot for the Yankees, who have homered in 43 of 56 games this season.
Carter narrowly missed another homer in the sixth when Mookie Betts caught his shot at the right-field wall. He added a RBI single in the eighth.
Gary Sanchez, Matt Holliday, and Brett Gardner drove in a run each while Jonathan Holder pitched a perfect ninth for the Yankees.
The Red Sox will turn to veteran ace David Price (1-0) in the finale of a three-game set Thursday against the Yankees’ Michael Pineda.
Pineda has a 6-3 record with 3.76 ERA in 11 starts for the Yankees. He will try to recover from a rocky outing after giving up five runs and 10 hits to the Toronto Blue Jays Friday.
Masahiro Tanaka still struggling
Pineda and Sabathia are the two bright spots in the Yankees’ rotation with Tanaka still struggling with a 0-5 record with a 10.72 ERA.
He's allowed 27 earned runs through 22 2/3 innings.
Despite this, Girardi and pitching coach Larry Rothschild do not plan to remove Tanaka from the starting rotation and intend to start him Sunday against the Orioles.
Girardi and Rothschild have figured Tanaka's problem and are trying to find solutions to get him back on track. "I think it all stems from the same thing. We need to make sure we can solidify his release point," Rothschild said.
