New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia hadn't pitched in the majors since May 10 and it certainly showed after he tossed 55 pitches for the Double-A Trenton Thunder minor league squad. Sabathia allowed five runs (three earned), five hits, one walk, and one hit batter over 3 2/3 innings last night.
Bad news keeps piling up for the Bronx Bombers: they fell under .500 last night after getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, Yangervis Solarte was sent back down to the minors, Mark Teixeira had his knee drained, and now CC Sabathia had a second humbling start in the minor leagues. The Yankees desperately need Sabathia to return to form, as their only formidable pitchers are Masahiro Tanaka (2.10 ERA) and an underperforming Hiroki Kuroda (4.08 ERA).
Sabathia was placed on the 15-day disabled list on May 11 because of a degenerative right knee. Following a start on May 10 against the Milwaukee Brewers, Sabathia experienced swelling in the same knee he suffered a torn meniscus back in 2010. He had fluid removed to reduce the swelling, but the pain and swelling persisted. It was diagnosed as a degenerative knee condition. Despite a poor start against the Portland Sea Dogs, Sabathia said his knee felt good.
"The secondary pitches weren't that good, but my fastball I felt was coming off pretty good. I feel good health-wise, so I'll be ready to go," Sabathia told reporters, via this NBC Hardball Talk article. "I need to work on my secondary pitches a little more. Changeup was cutting, slider wasn't as sharp as I wanted it to be, so we'll do some work on those things. But overall, I felt pretty good."
His fastball topped out at 94 miles per hour, clocking consistently at 90-91 mph. He threw 33 of his 55 pitches for strikes and left the game in the fourth inning with two men on base. The Thunder lost 8-6 and fell to 39-46, similar to the Yankees (41-42). After a 39-33 start, the Bombers have dropped nine of their last 11, falling to third place in the mediocre American League East division.
Even though they're only 4.5 games back of the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays, things are not looking good for New York. The roster is decimated with injuries and underperforming players. Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Carlos Beltran - what some would call 'desperate' free agent signings - have been less than stellar for most of the year. The pitching staff lost young studs Ivan Nova for the remainder of the year and Michael Pineda until at least August.
Unless Joe Girardi and co. can figure out a way to mend these countless issues, the tailspin can begin much sooner than expected.
You can read more about CC Sabathia's rehab start in this MLB.com article.
