Yankees 2, Nationals 3: CC Sabathia disappoints again

Not a whole lot of good happened for the Yankees early in this game. CC Sabathia made the start and it wasn't pretty. He gave up leadoff walks in the first and second, which both ended up scoring. Over three innings he allowed three runs on three hits and two walks, though he did manage to add three strikeouts against a mostly major league-caliber Nationals lineup.

CC topped out at around 88 mph, living mostly at 86 and dropping all the way to 75 mph on his breaking pitches. He showed that he could still get some pretty looking strikeouts when his location was on, but otherwise he was either hit hard or struggled to find the zone as he threw only 37 of his 62 pitches for strikes. Yuck.

Meanwhile, Jordan Zimmermann kept the Yankee offense silent for four innings. They didn't get their first runner until he left the game when Eduardo Nunez hit a triple off Drew Storen in the fifth inning. Dean Anna singled him in to break the shutout. In the following inning, Zoilo Almonte hit a double off the outfield wall and two flyouts later it was a 2–3 game at the end of the sixth.

Unfortunately, they couldn't really do anything after that. The only other Yankee to get a hit was Yangervis Solarte. Both Brett Gardner and Ramon Flores hit long fly balls that died on the warning track. The wind was apparently blowing in all game, so it might have cost them two home runs.

The Yankee bullpen was collectively much better than CC, though no one of much interest pitched in the game. Matt Daley (K, BB), Jim Miller (K), David Herndon (K), Cesar Cabral (BB), and Brian Gordon (2 K, H) pitched an inning each and limited the Nats offense to one hit over five innings. I wanted to get a look at Gary Sanchez behind the plate, but Cabral was kind of all over the place, so it was difficult to get a good read on his receiving skills. For what it's worth, he was able to nab every stray pitch thrown to him.

The most exciting part of the game was absolutely when Dean Anna tripped over Brian McCann's mask and almost killed the new catcher. It could have been a very bad accident, but luckily everyone was ok, so it's hilarious.