CC Sabathia has been worse than Phil Hughes, and Yankees are sunk if he fails to build on Wednesday’s win

September 4, 2013 10:51 PM

BY Andy Martino

The solution to one pitching problem was obvious, and the Yankees waited to banish Phil Hughes only because of a lack of alternatives.  The second issue cuts far deeper, and the team can only hope that CC Sabathia — who has, brace yourself, been worse than Hughes for months now — found some sustainable version of his former self in defeating the White Sox on Wednesday night.

Hughes belonged in the bullpen long ago, way before David Huff emerged as a reasonable replacement, but he was never essential enough to spoil this wild card party. Sabathia can still ruin everything, if he fails to build on his first true success in nearly a month.

 

Sabathia, who allowed three runs in 7.1 innings in a sweep-completing 6-5 win against Chicago, has been so bad for so long that even a resilient outing could not fully not ease his team’s anxieties.  And he has the power to render many positives — from the Yankees’ suddenly thumping offense to Andy Pettitte’s resurgence to Mariano Rivera’s pre-retirement dominance — totally irrelevant.