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October 12, 2007
By KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON – After crafting a career-best season spiced with historic control of his pitches, C.C. Sabathia has hit the skids in the playoffs.
The Indians’ lefty won 19 games and may yet take home the Cy Young award but he’s fallen flat on his face in two postseason starts. After walking six hitters and leaving after five innings last week in a blowout win over the Yankees, Sabathia came unraveled Friday night against the Red Sox in the ALCS opener.
Sabathia was hit hard early and then encountered major control problems as the Red Sox ran up eight runs in 4.1 innings. The lefty walked five Sox, including one intentionally, and even walked in a run when he let Manny Ramirez dig out of an 0-and-2 hole and walk with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.
After the game, Sabathia pointed to a poor change-up, sloppy control and a lack of aggression as the root of his problems.
“I was upset with myself for just not being aggressive. Not being my usual aggressive, coming-at-the-guys self,” he said. “I guess you could say that was a wasted opportunity.”
That was definitely the case. Instead of the Red Sox seeing the Sabathia that can dominate with a high-90’s fastball and cutting slider, he continually either let hitters fight back in counts or got behind himself with poor control.
“I was trying to be too fine instead of being myself and going after guys,” he said. “They were patient. They did a good job. But normally I make them chase pitches and I didn’t do that tonight.”
Sabathia’s control problem in his last two starts is truly puzzling. During the regular season, he recorded the second highest strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.65) by a lefty pitcher in major league history. Now he has trouble both getting ahead in the count and punching out hitters when he’s in control.
“He didn’t do a good enough job early in the count being aggressive so he could use all his pitches,” said pitching coach Carl Willis.
Cleveland manager Eric Wedge knows that he needs both Sabathia and Game Two starter Fausto Carmona to pitch very well for his team to have a chance to upset the Red Sox. After seeing Sabathia fail to check in with his best stuff, the pressure moves to Carmona.
''Well, he didn't have it tonight. His command was off,” Wedge said. “He was off a little bit with his fastball, having trouble getting his breaking ball where he needed to. He was running away from his change-up a little bit. He just never really got in sync.”
Both Sabathia and Wedge credited the patience of the Red Sox hitters as a major factor in the game. Sabathia said several of his fastballs were just off the plate but the Sox never chased.
“You know, when you're talking about facing a team like Boston, they're going to make you come in, they're going to make you work for it. They're not going to chase,’ said Wedge. “You've got to prove that you can be in the zone before they even think about expanding a little bit. It was just one of those nights where C.C. just wasn't able to get on track.”
After the Indians scored first on a Travis Hafner home run off Josh Beckett in the top of the first inning, the Sox put a single run on the board after four different hitters struck the ball very hard. One was a liner by Dustin Pedroia back to the box that Sabathia stabbed but the next three were singles that led to a run and a 1-1 tie.
Things became unraveled in the third, however. Julio Lugo led off with a ground rule double to right. Sabathia then walked Kevin Youkilis and grazed David Ortiz with a tight fastball to load the bases. Sabathia jumped out to a two-strike lead against Ramirez but let him get away to walk in Lugo for a 2-1 lead. Mike Lowell followed with a huge hit, a one-hop liner into the right-field seats for a double and two more runs. A Jason Varitek ground ball knocked in the fourth run of the inning for a 5-1 Boston lead.
Sabathia buried his team even further in the fifth inning when he walked Ortiz, Ramirez singled and Lowell walked to load the bases. Bobby Kielty then doubled to right to score two more runs and push the lead to a commanding 7-1.
“Not going after guys in the zone and not being aggressive, that’s what got me in trouble,” said Sabathia. “I felt great. I had no worries the whole time. Just pitch selection and not sticking with the game plan got to me.”
Willis said the frustration from the Indians’ point of view came in not seeing the best of Sabathia on the playoff stage.
“They didn’t see the C.C. Sabathia that’s been pitching throughout this season. Next time, I fully expect him to go out and pitch well,” said Willis.
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