Sabathia pitches Yankees past Sox
CHICAGO — CC Sabathia pitched eight strong innings to earn his major league-best 16th win and the New York Yankees beat the White Sox 3-2 on Monday for their fourth consecutive victory.
Sabathia allowed two runs and 10 hits, matching a season high, but managed to wiggle out of trouble all night as the White Sox struggled to score without injured slugger Paul Konerko. They put the tying run in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh and came away with nothing each time.
Sabathia (16-5) improved to 9-1 with a 1.76 ERA in his last 10 starts, burnishing his credentials for a second AL Cy Young Award. The big left-hander has pitched at least six innings in each of his last 21 outings.
Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth for his 28th save in 32 chances and second in as many days.
Alexei Ramirez hit a two-run homer for Chicago, which has lost three straight games. Ramirez, A.J. Pierzynski and Gordon Beckham each had two hits.
White Sox right-hander Jake Peavy (4-5) settled down after a rough start and pitched seven effective innings. The 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner gave up three runs and eight hits, but still dropped his fourth consecutive decision.
Both teams were without their captains for the opener of the four-game series. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter rested with a bruised right middle finger and is expected to return to the lineup Tuesday, but Konerko could miss the next couple of days with a bruised left calf.
Both All-Stars were injured when they were hit by a pitch on Sunday.
“I can’t bear any weight,” Konerko said. “That’s probably the main thing. Just very weak. That’s very normal where I got hit. Just keep working at it.”
The inconsistent White Sox trailed AL Central-leading Detroit by four games entering play on Monday, and could lose more ground if they are without their best player for a prolonged stretch. Konerko leads Chicago regulars with a .305 batting average, 25 homers and 76 RBIs.
His absence was felt almost immediately.
Fill-in first baseman Adam Dunn made a nice diving stop on Brett Gardner’s leadoff grounder in the first, but couldn’t get the ball out of his glove in time to retire the speedy outfielder. Curtis Granderson followed with a run-scoring double into the right-field corner and came around to score when Robinson Cano’s hard, one-out grounder skipped past Dunn for an RBI single.
Dunn also came up with the tying run on second in the sixth and struck out swinging to end the inning, leading to more jeers from the frustrated crowd of 24,142 at U.S. Cellular Field.
Granderson scored on Cano’s double-play grounder to give New York a 3-0 lead in the third, but the Yankees struggled after their fast start. They recorded six of their eight hits in the first three innings.