Scoreless start from Sabathia an encouraging sign going forward

Slade Heathcott stole the show in the end, but last night’s most significant development just might have been the performance of CC Sabathia.

If this is Sabathia’s new reality — pitching well and staying healthy doing it — then a lot has changed for the Yankees going forward. In the short term, their rotation might not be as thin as it seemed during the Blue Jays series. In the long term, those two years left on Sabathia’s contract might not be as hopeless as they seemed through most of the season.

Since he stopped holding back at the end of July, Sabathia’s only bad start has been the one when he was too hurt to keep pitching. Since he got the new brace, Sabathia’s made two good starts, and last night’s just might have been his best in more than two years.

It was the first time since April 7, 2013 that Sabathia finished a start without an earned run.

“He came up big for us,” Joe Girardi said. “… The three starts before the one he got hurt, he was throwing the ball pretty well. Now it seems like the knee brace has helped, and he’s kind of picked up where he left off.”

Although that Rays lineup might not look like much — fewest runs in the American League — they posed a legitimate challenge for Sabathia.

Tampa Bay came into last night’s game with the baseball’s fifth-best OPS against left-handed pitchers (better than Houston, Texas, Kansas City and every National League team). Eight of their nine starters last night were either switch hitters and right-handed hitters, who’d given Sabathia fits most of the year.

Here’s last night’s Rays lineup with each hitter’s slash line against lefties coming into the game:

Brandon Guyer – .267/.374/.422
Mikie Mahtook – .268/.375/.585
Evan Longoria – .352/.414/.568
Logan Forsythe – .299/.373/.625
Asdrubal Cabrera – .288/.300/.456
Steven Souza Jr. – .213/.359/.427
Richie Shaffer 1B – .077/.226/.077
Kevin Kiermaier CF – .237/.267/.307
J.P. Arencibia C – .294/.278/.647

Six guys in that lineup had an OPS of .785 or better against lefties (for comparison, that’s almost identical to Brett Gardner’s season OPS). Three of them had an OPS of .960 or better against lefties (that’s better than Josh Donaldson’s season OPS). Shaffer spent almost all year in Triple-A and hit .310/.382/.621 against lefties down there.

Point is, this lineup could have been trouble, and Sabathia delivered a vintage start in a big moment. Three good starts in August and a couple of good starts in the past week don’t prove anything. They don’t mean Sabathia’s going to be great the rest of the year, and they certainly don’t mean he’s going to hold up through the rest of his contract.

But these past few starts have been positive signs, and they’ve come from a pitcher who’d given almost nothing but warning signs for a couple of years now.

Associated Press photos

The post Scoreless start from Sabathia an encouraging sign going forward appeared first on The LoHud Yankees Blog.

from lloydcurry1 http://ift.tt/1OsZQed