A Reason To Not Be Concerned About CC's Start Yesterday

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Besides the simple and obvious one that he's had a poor Opening Day track record, of course.  CC Sabathia was bad in his first 2 innings last night, giving up all 6 of his runs in those frames before settling down and making it through 6 without further damage.  He and Joe said his early struggles were due to his pitches cutting, and after the game CC had an explanation as to why:

“I wanted to try to back off and not overthrow.  When I do that, I tend to cut myself short and that’s when the balls cut. My changeup cuts, my fastball was cutting. It’s just me not really getting extended and letting the ball go out in front. It’s just cutting it off and that’s what makes it cut.”

Whatever mechanical adjustment he made to counteract the early cutting problem worked for him over the next 4 innings, as did the addition of the cutter to his pitch mix in the 4th.  While it's never good to see the big guy struggling, it's reassuring to read that he knew what was wrong and made a change to correct it.  That's way better than the lack of answers he had for most of last season and should provide confidence that Sabathia will be fine going forward.