Sabathia On Target Against Rangers:Yankees 5 Rangers 1

This game was called after six innings.
The first inning may have been the Rangers’ best opportunity to score against C.C. Sabathia.

A Michael Young double, Josh Hamilton single and Vladimir Guerrero sacrifice fly plated a run for the Rangers, giving them an early lead at Yankee Stadium. The problem is the Yankees answered that run, scoring on what was scored a passed ball charged to Taylor Teagarden. The UT product got a glove on a ball, but it bounced off the top part of the mitt.

The problem was that Sabathia personified the definition of spot on since allowing two hits in the first. Beginning with the last out of the first inning, Nelson Cruz, who has been doing everything but striking out, Sabathia struck out six in a row. The streak ended on a Young flyout to right in the third. Not often do I get excited about a fly out, but at least he put the ball in play. Sabathia recorded nine total strikeouts at the delay.

A Joaquin Arias single in the fifth and Julio Borbon HBP to begin the sixth account for the rest of the Rangers’ baserunners. The single by Arias was the last if three hits for the Rangers.

Spotty fielding in the last two games from surefire guys like Michael Young, Chris Davis and Elvis Andrus cost the Rangers in the bottom of the fourth. Alex Rodriguez reached base on a HBP call, although replays showed he was not hit. Following an infield hit and a walk, Davis could not pick Young’s throw on Curtis Granderson and three runs scored in the inning.

To add to the fielding woes, C.J. Wilson, pitching after recovering from food poisoning, couldn’t hold a popup in the bottom of the sixth as the Yankees scored again to go up 5-1.

Wilson pitched the whole way at the time of the delay, just before the top of the seventh inning, tallying five strikeouts and three walks. Two of the five runs scored by the Yankees were unearned. In the stats, the game counts as a rain-shortened complete game for both pitchers.