Sabathia Dealing when it Matters

The Yankees needed a sparkling outing from CC Sabathia today and got just that from the lefty ace. Sabathia tossed eight innings of two run ball, striking out ten hitters and walking only one batter. CC's great start is fantastic news for the Yankees after he was having a pedestrian stretch after his return from the disabled list. He was able to give the bullpen a rest. Robertson and Soriano have been used a lot in this series and the strong outing by the big lefty gave Girardi more tools to work with entering the Toronto series which will be four games long.

The Yankee offense certainly got it going today with a six run rally in the third inning which started with a couple of innocent singles. Chris Dickerson started the rally with a base hit and later hit a bomb off the facing of the upper deck in right field. Another promising sign is to see Cano starting to get out of his funk. Robbie had a big two-run double in the Yankees third inning rally which got the scoring going. He would finish his day with another double and made two spectacular plays in the field which allowed Sabathia to last the length of time he did.

The win puts a lot of pressure on the Baltimore Orioles tonight as the Yankees division lead grows another half game. With an Oriole loss, the Yankees lead in the division would become 2.5 games. The Yankees go into Toronto to play their final four road games of the season beginning tomorrow night. Ivan Nova will make the start for the Yankees as he looks to improve on his previous outing against the Athletics.

The Yankees magic number for a postseason berth: 4

The Yankees magic number for the division: 6