C.C. Sabathia starred for the New York Yankees in a comfortable 8-2 win over the Minnesota Twins 8-2 at Target Field.
The Yanks are one-and-a-half games above the Baltimore Orioles, thanks to Sabathia striking out 10 batters over eight innings.
Meanwhile, Toronto were beaten 12-2 by the Orioles. The Yankees will now face the Toronto Blue Jays for four games while the Orioles will play the Boston Red Sox.
Manager Joe Girardi said Sabathia would pitch again next week. "This is what he can do," Girardi said. "He can string a bunch of good ones together. And if there's a time, now's the time."
Sabathia (14-6) threw 118 pitches for the Yankees, of which 89 were strikes which included 3 straight pitches to Joe Mauer who went 0 for 4.
"That's the best I've seen him, and I've been watching him for a long time," Mauer said. "When I was up there he was both sides of the plate: fastball, slider, sinker. He threw me everything, and everything was working."
The injury-ridden Sabathia was out of action for some time due to a strained left groin and a swollen elbow, but today he proved again that on his day he win games.
"We're in a race. We know it's going to be tough," Sabathia said. "So you want to go out and do well every time out. Hopefully, I can go out and pitch well again the next time. I'll take what I can out of this one and be ready to go five days from now.''
A two-run double by Robinson Cano and a two-run triple by Curtis Granderson against Brian Duensing (4-11) in a six-run third inning had put the Yankees in a good position.
Chris Dickerson was also looking very confident and he contributed by hitting a two-run homer. Jeter saw his 19-game hitting streak end with a 0-for-4 game; however, he was walked and scored in the third.
"I feel like we're playing our best ball now, and this is the perfect time to be doing that," Nick Swisher said."
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