CC And His Battles With The One Bad Inning

(Courtesy of the AP)

CC Sabathia has made 6 starts in the month of April.  He's pitched 37 innings in those starts and given up 21 earned runs in those innings for a pretty bad 5.11 ERA.  As a whole, CC's performance has been subpar this year, but looking start by start it's been the 1 bad inning that's really killed him.

• 4/1- 6 IP, 6 ER; 1 bad inning (btm 1st), 4 ER
• 4/6- 6 IP, 4 ER; 1 bad inning (btm 6th), 3 ER
• 4/11- 7 IP, 4 ER; 1 bad inning top 6th), 4 ER
• 4/17- 7 IP, 1 ER; no bad innings
• 4/24- 6 IP, 2 ER; 1 bad inning (btm 3rd), 2 ER
• 4/29- 5 IP, 4 ER; 1 bad inning (top 5th), 4 ER

He's had 1 bad inning in 5 of his 6 starts and he's given up 17 of his 21 ER in those 5 innings (30.60 ERA).  In his other 32 IP, he's given up 4 ER (1.13 ERA).  On the one hand, this split shows that Sabathia's overall performance has not been as bad as his ERA would lead you to believe.  On the other, it shows how much CC is struggling to adjust to life as a finesse pitcher.  His bad innings have been defined by an inability to locate pitches down in the strike zone, an inability to put hitters away with 2 strikes, and an inability to finish off innings with 2 outs.  The Yankees need Carsten to be better with Nova and Pineda both on the shelf for the foreseeable future.  To be better, he needs to find a way to limit damage and eliminate the 1 bad inning every time out.