CC Sabathia hardly looks like an ace against the Boston Red Sox.
For the fourth time this season, Sabathia was knocked around by the Red Sox as the New York Yankees fell 10-4 on Saturday, dropping into a first-place tie with Boston atop the AL East.
“I believe CC will turn it around, I do,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said when asked about the left-hander’s struggles against the Yankees’ top rival.
Jacoby Ellsbury had a three-run homer with a career-high six RBIs as the Red Sox snapped New York’s season-high eight-game winning streak.
“He’s human,” Yankees centre-fielder Curtis Granderson said of Sabathia. “That’s part of it. He doesn’t have an ERA of zero. He’ll move on from it. We’ll move on from it.”
Sabathia (16-6) leads the majors in wins, and his 2.55 earned-run average coming into the game was tied for fifth. But he fell to 0-4 with a 7.20 ERA against Boston this year after allowing seven runs in six innings, giving up nine hits and a walk and striking out six.
In all of his other starts this season, the big lefty is 16-2 with a 2.11 ERA.
Asked if he felt it would bother him if the teams meet in the post-season, he paused, smiled briefly and said: “No. Like I said, when I’m right I can beat anybody.”
Boston broke it open with a five-run fourth that was capped by Ellsbury’s homer.
“It was just another missed location,” said Sabathia, who blamed his poor command for his bad outing.
Elsewhere in the American League it was: Baltimore 6, Toronto 2; Chicago White Sox 6, Minnesota 1; Detroit 4, Kansas City 3; Oakland 8, Tampa Bay 0; Cleveland 7, Texas 5; and Seattle 5, Los Angeles Angels 1.
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At Boston, in the series finale on Sunday night, Freddy Garcia (10-7), who has had a pair of bad performances in his only two starts against the Red Sox this season, faces Josh Beckett.
“They’ve hit him pretty good,” Girardi said. “Freddy’s been pretty consistent. Those are his starts that weren’t.”
Garcia, 0-2 against the Red Sox, has given up nine runs in eight innings.
Carl Crawford had four hits – giving him hits in six straight plate appearances – and scored three runs to help Boston improve to 69-43 – the same as the Yankees – one day after falling out of first for the first time in almost a month.
John Lackey (10-8) scattered six hits over six innings for the Red Sox, who are 9-2 against New York this season and have clinched at least a tie in the season series.
Lackey allowed three runs – he also walked two and hit two batters – while striking out five to win his fifth consecutive decision.
It was two-all when Kevin Youkilis doubled to lead off the fourth and, after David Ortiz struck out, Mike Aviles singled home one run. Crawford singled and, one out later, Marco Scutaro singled in another run before Ellsbury hit a high fly that landed in the first row of the right-field seats next to the 380-foot marker.
The Yankees cut it to 7-4 on Mark Teixeira’s solo homer off Daniel Bard in the eighth.
But Boston loaded the bases against Hector Noesi in the bottom half before Ellsbury hit a two-run single and Dustin Pedroia added a sacrifice fly to make it 10-4.
Noesi got out of the inning when Adrian Gonzalez’s line drive hit off his right shoulder, and the ball ricocheted toward first base, where Teixeira picked it up and tagged the base for the out.
Francisco Cervelli had three hits for the Yankees, including a leadoff double against Dan Wheeler in the ninth. With two on, Teixeira lined the ball down the right-field line, just foul of the Pesky Pole.
He flied out to centre to end the game.
At Baltimore, Adam Jones hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning after Brandon Morrow was perfect through five, and the Orioles rallied to beat the Toronto Blue Jays.
At Kansas City, Mo., Justin Verlander lasted seven innings despite some balky defence behind him and the Detroit Tigers hung on to beat the Royals, moving their ace into a tie for the major league lead in wins.
At Anaheim, Calif., Blake Beavan pitched in and out of trouble through eight impressive innings, Trayvon Robinson hit his first major league homer in his second game up from triple-A, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels.
At Minneapolis, Zach Stewart threw six sharp innings in his White Sox debut, Paul Konerko drove in two runs and Brent Lillibridge added a late two-run homer as Chicago beat the Minnesota Twins.
At St. Petersburg, Fla., Brandon McCarthy pitched five-hit ball for eight innings, David DeJesus homered twice and the Oakland Athletics earned a rare road victory by beating the Tampa Bay Rays.
At Arlington, Texas, Michael Brantley hit a go-ahead RBI double and Jason Kipnis homered in Cleveland’s four-run ninth inning as the Indians rallied past the Rangers.
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