CC Sabathia

The New York Yankees accomplished a rare feature in their 4-2 loss against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday afternoon. Pitcher CC Sabathia was pitching very well, but did not get enough run support to top the A's.

Sabathia pitched to Kurt Suzuki. The ball was chopped to Alex Rodriguez, who rushed to third and stepped on the bag to get Daric Barton out.

Rodriguez then beamed the ball nicely to Robinson Cano awaiting at second base to force Ryan Sweeney out.

The Yankees may have lost by 2 runs against the Oakland A's, but this afternoon's game will be remembered for one defensive play.

In the bottom of the 6th inning of today's game, Kurt Suzuki stepped to the plate with  Ryan Sweeney on 1st and Daric Barton on 2nd base and nobody out. Suzuki, in the first inning, drilled a 3-R Run home run against CC Sabathia to give Oakland the early lead.

One of the best Clint Eastwood movies from his Western days was "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Fantastic. Rent it if you have not seen it. In fact, get a bunch of Clint movies one rainy day and park yourself on the couch.

This movie title is going to be the same as this Yankee theme. It will be a bi-weekly segment on the most recent Yankee two week stretch of games.

I wanted to give my opinion on Joe Girardi wanting to pull CC Sabathia before the ninth inning of last Saturday's game at Tampa Bay.

Sabathia was cruising along with a no-hitter into the 8th inning, when with two outs Kelly Shoppach, a former teammate of CC's at Cleveland, singled to left.

Even before the ball landed, Girardi was out of the dugout to remove Sabathia.

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has both his critics and his advocates.

If Kelly Shoppach hadn't broken up CC Sabathia's no-hitter with two outs in the eighth inning of yesterday's game between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays, Girardi would have made a managerial move that could have converted many of his supporters.

He told ESPNNewYork's  Wallace Matthews, "Shoppach was [CC's] last hitter, no matter what." 

That translates to, "If CC had a no-hitter entering the ninth inning, I wouldn't have let him attempt to make history."

He just couldn't wait to get out there.

Manager Joe Girardi appeared to be out of the dugout before Kelly Shoppach's line drive single to left hit the turf in front of Brett Gardner with two outs in the eighth inning.

It was the Rays' first hit of the afternoon off CC Sabathia and with the big lefty at 111 pitches in his second start of the season, Girardi basically sprinted onto the field to pull his pitcher from the game with an 8-0 lead.

If you were a Yankee fan watching this game, chances are you didn’t move for a good two or three innings while C.C. Sabathia put together a great rebound performance after his shaky first start against Boston.

Actually "great" is probably an understatement, since he went 7.2 innings before allowing a single to Kelly Shoppach (who is now forever hated by Yankee fans). Sabathia only struck out five, but was absolutely dominant the whole time he was in the game.

After seven and two-thirds innings of no-hit ball Saturday afternoon in Tampa Bay, C.C. Sabathia was within striking distance of his first career no-hitter.

Just four outs to go.

Update : With two outs in the eighth inning, Sabathia lost his no-hit bid on a base hit to left field by Tampa catcher Kelly Shoppach.

I know some people might blast me for posting this, but I’m not overly superstitious and I know that nothing I do here in New York is going to change anything going on in Tampa.

It was another disappointing October in Cleveland, as it has been each year since 1948.

It is perhaps a blessing that the Indians did not make it far enough to collapse on the big stage, as they routinely did throughout the '90s and again in 2007.

However, while the team as a whole did not reach the postseason, many Indians alumni got to experience the playoffs. Here's a look at the former hometown heroes who got a shot at glory.

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