More than honoring his status as staff ace, the lefthander pitched the Yankees into the ALCS against Detroit with a dominating complete-game effort in a 3-1 victory over the Orioles Friday night in front of 47,081 chilly fans at the Stadium.
“CC was unbelievable tonight,” said Raul Ibañez, whose single off Jason Hammel in the fifth broke a scoreless tie. “That performance was a tremendous warrior, a tremendous competitor. He willed that to happen. That’s what it looked like.”
Orioles manager Buck Showalter compared Sabathia’s performance (one run, four hits, two walks, nine strikeouts) to Justin Verlander’s in leading the Tigers past the A’s in Game 5.