Postgame notes: “No matter what, I was coming back”

Four weeks ago, CC Sabathia’s knee had all it could handle. He’d been pitching well, but his knee was finished, and when Joe Girardi went to the mound in the third inning, he knew it might be the end. Maybe not the end of Sabathia’s career, but the end of his season was a definite possibility.

In that moment, it seems only Sabathia was convinced he could have another night like this one.

“No matter what,” he said. “I was coming back.”

He’s back, all right. This Mets lineup has been awfully dangerous lately, and Sabathia held them to one run through six innings. He struck out seven, including three of the last five batters he faced. Sabathia has a 2.56 ERA in seven starts since the end of July. In three starts since that injury setback at the end of August, and he’s allowed two earned runs in 17.1 innings.

“You know, I wasn’t sure if we were going to get him back,” Girardi said. “And I asked him after a couple of days of wearing the (new) brace, how does it feel? And he said, ‘You know, it’s all right. It’s all right.’ Which made me feel like, if he’s going to buy into wearing the brace, he’s got a chance, because he was pitching pretty well before he got hurt. And that’s exactly what’s happened.”

This was a start that might have gotten away from Sabathia a few months ago. That first inning started with back-to-back doubles on a well-struck cutter and a poorly placed changeup. He loaded the bases that inning for right-handed Michael Cuddyer, but Sabathia got a popup to strand three runners. It as the start of retiring nine in a row.

Sabathia said it was all about hitting his spots, getting some early swings, and throwing some good changeups. It was all about making good pitches, basically, but that’s only possible because his knee is healthy enough to allow it. He took a couple of weeks off, got a bigger and better brace, and now he’s delivering vintage starts down the stretch.

“I think I needed the rest,” He said. “Obviously the brace has been helping. Just a few adjustments we made in the rehab, and I’ve been feeling pretty good, so hopefully I can keep that up. … I don’t have to worry about every pitch. Or this pitch, if I’m trying to go in, if that’s going to hurt. I can just go out and throw my game and not have to worry about it.”

Nathan Eovaldi is out with an elbow injury, Masahiro Tanaka is dealing with a sore hamstring, Michael Pineda has been inconsistent, and Luis Severino is still awfully young. This is a flawed and damaged rotation, and it’s figurehead is a flawed and damaged veteran who’s finding a way to make it work.

“I’ve always said that he’s important to us,” Girardi said. “Because he’s been through this, and he’s a competitor. I’ve said, I didn’t think we were going to get him back, when he left that game. I really didn’t. But he did, and He’s important to us.”

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• That deadline deal for Dustin Ackley doesn’t look so insignificant these days. His three-run homer really got the Yankees started toward a blowout. He’s hitting .409 with two homers and two doubles since coming off the disabled list this month. “It’s great just to contribute in any way I can at the plate or in the field, whatever,” Ackley said. “It’s been fun. To be a part of this playoff race and all that, it’s a special thing. It’s territory I’ve never really been in before, so it’s fun. Every game means something and that’s a fun way to play.”

• With Ackley and Greg Bird each hitting three-run homers tonight, the Yankees have now hit 45 home runs of at least three runs this season. That’s the most by a Major League team since the 2000 Cardinals had 48 such homers. Ackley is the 15th different Yankees player to this a three-run homer or grand slam this season.

• Seven of Bird’s eight home runs have come with at least one runner on base. He now has eight home runs through 32 career games, the third-most homers by a Yankees hitter through 32 games since 1914 (Kevin Maas had 12 and Shane Spencer had 11). His 24 RBI through 32 games are the most by a Yankee since Hideki Matsui had 24 in 2003.

• The Mets came into this game planning to pitch Matt Harvey only five innings. They successfully did that, but their bullpen couldn’t come close to matching his dominance. “He was rolling pretty good,” Ackley said. “We couldn’t really string anything together and yeah, when he did come out, we got some guys on base. We knew that was a good chance to really make something happen and we just continued to roll pretty much the rest of the game and didn’t hold back at all.”

• Eleven runs were the most allowed by the Mets since they gave up 12 runs on April 27 in Colorado.

• Over their past seven games, the Yankees’ starters are 4-1 with a 1.33 ERA and 39 strikeouts with seven walks. They’ve allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight straight starts at Citi Field dating back to June 14, 2012.

• Sabathia walked Lucas Duda in the first inning. It was only his fifth walk to a left-handed batter this season. … Tonight was his first win since July 8 against Oakland, snapping a nine-start winless streak. … He retired 16 of 20 hitters from the final out of the first inning to the end of the sixth.

• With seven strikeouts, Sabathia now has 1,175 during his Yankees career. He moved ahead of Mariano Rivera (1,173) for eighth on the Yankees’ all-time strikeouts list.

• The Yankees went 4-2 in the Subway Series. This was their first Subway Series win since 2012.

• After what happened to Tanaka on Friday, did the Yankees tell Sabathia not to sprint too hard out of the box? “I don’t think we had to worry about CC running hard,” Giradri said. Hilarious!

Girardi was ejected in the second inning for arguing with John Hirschbeck that Bird didn’t swing on what was called a swinging strike three. Even after the game, Girardi said he was still certain it wasn’t a swing. It was Girardi’s fourth ejection of the year, but what’s odd is that only Hirschbeck seemed to know he’d been ejected. “I never saw it,” Girardi said. “I don’t know if anyone else saw it, but I never did. So he came over in the third inning and said, what are you still doing here? I said, ‘What do you mean? You never threw me out.’ He said, Yes, I did. So I don’t understand it.”

• Final word goes to Carlos Beltran: “CC is a veteran guy, he’s the leader of the rotation. Today, what I saw was a guy going out there, and even though he’s been able to have a few knee issues in previous starts, today he was able to go out there and fight. I think that’s a great message for the younger guys, to look up to a guy like that and understand that right now, this time of the year, sometimes you’re going to feel sore. This is the time of the year that you cannot focus on that. You’ve got to focus on going out and performing and trying to help the team win.”

Associated Press photos

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