Phillies bring down Brewers' horse Sabathia
Ride a horse long enough, it's going to collapse.
The Brewers' horse couldn't carry them last night.
DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff photographer
Brewers' CC Sabathia slogs toward the dugout after being lifted in the fourth inning.
CC Sabathia, the Brewers' mercenary ace, had never pitched on 3 days' rest before the Brewers asked him to do so Sept 20.
Last night was the fourth straight start on short rest.
And maybe the last start of his season, his last start as a Brewer.
Sabathia lasted just 11 outs in a Game 2 defeat at the hands of the Phillies, 5-2. He gave up five runs, all in the third inning. He needed 98 pitches to last that long.
He insisted: "I don't think starting on 3 days' rest had anything to do with it," Sabathia said.
He said it was his inability to make pitches, his inability to throw strikes when he had to, his inability to close out innings.
Why?
"I felt fine . . . It was just one of those nights," he replied.
He hasn't had one of those nights since April.
Shane Victorino's two-out grand slam propelled the Phils to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series that now moves to Milwaukee, where it will continue tomorrow.
Sabathia, acquired from Cleveland in a July 6 trade, might have thrown his last pitch as a Brewer. He will be a free agent after the playoffs, a blue-chipper who should command the sort of cash and stability Johan Santana got from the Mets (6 years, $137.5 million).
In his last four playoff outings, which include three postseason starts last year with the Indians, Sabathia has given up 20 runs, all earned, on 27 hits, 19 walks and 14 homers . . . in just 19 innings.
Last night's exhibition was particularly painful to watch.
"It didn't seem anything like last year," said Sabathia, who had blamed his 2007 failings on over-throwing, pitching with too much adrenaline and too much urgency.
With less of each, last night's exhibition was particularly painful to watch.
Phillies starter Brett Myers, an .047 hitter the past three seasons, battled heroically, if awkwardly, from 0-2, wrapping three foul balls around two offspeed pitches in the dirt. Pitch No. 9, ball four, wasn't close, and Sabathia seemed lost.
He walked Jimmy Rollins on four pitches to load the bases. He regrouped against Victorino, but hung a 1-2 changeup that Victorino pulled over the short leftfield wall for a 5-1 Phillies lead.
That was Sabathia's 31st pitch of the inning. He struck out Chase Utley on three pitches and exited with 34 in the inning, 51 overall. He left the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning having thrown 98 pitches.
The Brewers don't begrudge him any failings. After the trade that sent him to Milwaukee, Sabathia went 11-2 with a 1.65 earned run average in 17 starts. In those last three, on short rest, he was even better than usual.
He went 2-1, allowed just two earned runs, struck out 21 in 21 1/3 innings, 0.83 ERA. He gave up one run, unearned, in the wild-card clincher Sunday, his seventh complete game since the trade.
Maybe it was too much.
"You can blame this loss squarely on me," Sabathia said.
Last night, having logged 253 innings this season, the most in the majors, Sabathia seemed cooked, especially after that third inning. But a horse is a horse is a horse, of course, and, if his body was weak, Sabathia's heart was not lacking.
He didn't give up another run, although Myers helped shorten his night. Myers went down, 0-2, again in the fourth. He fouled off four pitches and worked the count full before flying out to centerfield on the 10th pitch.
"Our goal," Victorino said, "was to get his pitch count up."
Because, of course, Sabathia had thrown 413 pitches in the 16 days before yesterday's game.
Then Jimmy Rollins doubled, the sixth and final hit Sabathia surrendered, all for extra bases. Sabathia intentionally walked Victorino, lost Utley in a full count, and was done, headed back to his paddock. *
