Any Quotes This Time CC Sabathia? Proud Pirates Pound Yanks [Pictures from Yanks vs Bucs]

CC Sabathia said a few days ago after being punished by the Bucs offense, that results don’t mean anything down here until you give up eight runs against the Pirates.  Nice.  CC must have been upset.  He was slated to toss 3 innings, but only made it through 2.1 and gave up five earned runs on seven hits and a walk.

I guess he thought it was a good time to pick on the Pirates.

So heading into the rematch against the Bucs, we can only think he must have been focused.  I would also think his statement made it to the Pirates locker room bulletin board.  Sure, it’s just spring training, but everyone has pride.  Check this out from Charlie Morton’s blog entry:

"After we got to Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia for a few runs, he made a comment that wasn’t too flattering about us. I have no comment about his comment. All I’ll say is, he voiced what a lot of people think about our team. It’s our job to change their perspective. We have a lot to prove."

So after going 4.1 innings today and giving up three runs, I am curious what Sabathia’s quote might be?  We went over to a great Yankees blog to find out.  As much as Pirates fans are enjoying the last two games versus CC, the Yankees aren’t really worried about it.  Go check out the link for the CC interview too.

"Last time out, CC Sabathia was frustrated. His back leg was dropping down, keeping him from staying on top of the ball and causing him to lose command of his pitches. Today in Bradenton, he was much better.“It’s something I have to think about early, at the beginning of spring training and couple of times during the year,” Sabathia said. “But during the year, as we get going, I’ll feel it on a couple of pitches and I’m able to correct it as opposed to going a whole inning of doing the same thing and running off the field with Dave (Eiland) telling me I’m collapsing.”Sabathia was good today. He was charged with three runs through 4.1 innings, but two of those came while he was out of the game. He was on a 60-pitch limit, and that was enough to carry him into the fifth inning. His balls-to-strikes ratio wasn’t great — 57 pitches, 29 strikes — but when Joe Girardi  was asked about it he said, “CC’s the least of my concerns.”"

 Heh, Pirate fans it was fun while it lasted.  I guess there isn’t much too say after giving up more than eight runs in less than seven innings against the Pirates.   But even if it means very little, a 10-5 victory over the Yankees will always be exciting to Pirates fans and build confidence in the players.  Especially, Charlie Morton who was strong.

We wanted to see something from Morton and he certainly delivered.  If only he would have gone after Nick Johnson in the first inning. 

The Pirates had plenty of help from the Bradenton wind, but we saw several balls stung during the game.    Bobby Crosby was 3-for-3 with 2HR and 3RBI.  Crosby came in to play after Ronny Cedeno left the game after being stepped on.  Cedeno had just stole second base. 

UGLY:  The Pirates baserunning is still atroucious.  Example:   Lastings Milledge (who was 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored) hit a single to right-center, but Nick Swisher went down like a ton of bricks.    Brett Gardner  began chasing the ball to the wall.  Blastings  started to go for three, but Tony Beasley gave him the red light as he rounded second. Gardner’s throw was on line, and Milledge was tagged out in a rundown between second and third.

The Box Score is here

Thanks to Jamie Workman for the pictures from the game