A-Rod, CC shake off history to boost Yanks in Game 1
NEW YORK -- The Twins played their Game 163 Tuesday, and it felt like a playoff game.
The Yankees played their Game 163 Wednesday, and it felt like ... well, like Game 123, or Game 133.
There's nothing wrong with that, and there's no reason to downplay their 7-2 Wednesday night win over the Twins in what was, officially, the playoff opener. Not every game is going to be "one of the greatest games ever."
If this one felt routine, that's fine. If it just as easily could have been win number 104 of the season rather than win number one of the postseason, that's fine, too, especially if it helps CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez overcome a postseason history that is nothing like their regular-season history.
"If you don't put too much emphasis, and you just do what we've been doing all year, things are going to happen," said closer Mariano Rivera, who long ago figured out how to succeed in October.
The Yankees don't need to do more in October than they've done all year. They need to do exactly what they've been doing all year.
Sabathia doesn't need to be better than he has been. He needs to be the same 19-win guy he's been.
And if A-Rod is the same 100-RBI (in 124 games) guy he's been, that works perfectly.
What the Yankees can't have is for Sabathia to be the same 7.92 ERA pitcher he was in his first three postseasons. Or for Rodriguez to be the same no-RBI guy he was when the Yankees lost to the Angels in 2005, or to the Tigers in 2006.
"Whatever happened in the past is behind them," Rivera said. "Those guys played today like they did all year."
Sabathia pitched into the seventh inning, allowed one run and -- here's the key -- no walks. A-Rod had a run-scoring single in the fifth and another in the seventh, ending an incredible streak of 29 hitless postseason at-bats with runners on base.
• New York 7, Minnesota 2 | Series: Yankees 1, Twins 0
Sabathia had never before had a postseason start with no walks, or even with just one walk. Contrast that to what he did in the regular season this year, when he had seven walkless starts and another nine with just one.
As much as the Yankees emphasized the need to give Sabathia more rest down the stretch, those who know him understood that they also had to keep him from getting over-hyped for a big start.
(In any case, the extra-rest theory is a little spotty. Sabathia threw 91 more pitches this September than he did in September 2007, when he struggled in the playoffs for the Indians.)
Pitching coach Dave Eiland said last week that when Sabathia gets too excited, his mechanics get out of whack. Eiland said Sabathia has worked on ways to control that during games.
Wednesday, for whatever reason, he didn't get overhyped, and didn't get out of whack.
"He was calm," catcher Jorge Posada said. "I think he was prepared, and I think that's why he was as calm as he was today."
Rodriguez was calm, too, and he says that calm comes from trusting his teammates. There was no doubt A-Rod was going to be a big part of the story Wednesday, because of the history, but the first thing he said when he was asked about the game was that "for me, the story is CC and [Derek Jeter]."
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| Alex Rodriguez ends his postseason slump with a 2-for-4, two-RBI performance in Game 1. (Getty Images) |
But we know what to expect from Jeter in October. We've seen it, and we've seen the championships.
We didn't know what to expect from Sabathia, or from A-Rod, or from this Yankee team.
We still don't, because this is only one game, and this is only the Twins. If we're seeing the same thing two weeks from now, then we'll really know we're onto something -- and so will the Yankees.
They already think they are, because of what they've seen all season.
"We liked where Alex was at this time of the year, physically, mentally," manager Joe Girardi said. "[He] finished up strong, had a great month of September. It's important."
What's really important in the Yankees world is how he does in October, how all of them do in October. As we said before, this Twins season is already a success, but this Yankee season can still be a failure.
It's a lot less likely to end as a failure if Sabathia is the same guy he was from April through September, and if A-Rod is the same guy he was from May through September, and if the Yankees can keep making these playoff games feel like simply an extension of their excellent regular season.
"We just kind of did what we did all year," reliever Phil Hughes said. "It seems like we won every way possible this year, but I think the majority of our wins came this way -- scoring a lot of runs, good starting pitching and then shut it down from the bullpen."
It worked all year. There's really no reason it can't work now.
Sabathia and A-Rod were great all year, or at least for most of the year. No reason they can't be great now.
No reason, except their postseason history, which maybe they both began to overcome Wednesday.
This is the playoffs, after all.
Whether it felt like it or not.
