NEW YORK (AP) -Cliff Lee found his Cy Young form in time to wreck the New York Yankees’ big day.
After a pair of poor outings to begin the season, Lee held New York in check on Thursday and got plenty of support from his offense, pitching the Cleveland Indians to a 10-2 victory in the opening game at the new Yankee Stadium.
“I was not coming in here to lose the first one to make it good for them in their opener, so I guess I was trying to spoil it,” he said. “But that wasn’t really my intentions. My intentions were to win for our team and to get us on track and to get us in the right direction.”
Still, he acknowledged his performance on this day will make for a nice story down the road.
he new Yankee Stadium and got the win. So I’m pretty happy about that.”
With 48,271 fans on hand at the $1.5 billion ballpark, Lee ruined all the fun by outpitching former Cleveland teammate CC Sabathia in a matchup of the past two AL Cy Young Award winners.
The 30-year-old lefty wriggled out of trouble all afternoon, allowing one run and seven hits in six innings. He was at his best when he was in a jam – the Yankees went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 over the first five innings.
“My previous two starts didn’t really go the way I wanted them to,” Lee said. “I felt like I was locating better and staying ahead in the count.”
“But it was still a game I had to battle,” he added. “I was able to make big pitches in big spots.”
Demoted to the minors in 2007, Lee put together a remarkable comeback last season, going 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA and only 34 walks in 31 starts covering 223 1-3 innings. He became Cleveland’s second consecutive Cy Young winner and the first Indians pitcher in 34 years to win 20 games.
But Lee struggled throughout spring training this year and lost his first two starts, against Texas and Toronto. Missing his pinpoint command, he gave up 11 runs, 17 hits and five walks in 10 innings for a 9.90 ERA.
. But they’ve won their last two games, and Lee’s latest outing was the best sign yet.
“Cliff was great today. He was sharp,” said Grady Sizemore, who hit a grand slam in a nine-run seventh. “That’s the pitcher that we saw last year. You couldn’t ask for a better start out of him.”
Pitching on a big stage, Lee yielded only Jorge Posada’s solo homer with two outs in the fifth. He struck out four and walked three, throwing 71 of 115 pitches for strikes.
“That’s what happens when you face the reigning Cy Young Award champion,” New York’s Johnny Damon said. “He was locating his fastball every time. He was outthinking us. Especially with runners in scoring position, he knew what he was doing out there.”
After it was over, Lee signed a game ball that’s headed to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“You could feel that it was not just a normal game,” Lee said. “But for me, I’ve got to kind of filter that stuff out and focus on executing pitches.
“Every inning there was someone on base and things going on and I had to make sure that I didn’t get over-amped or too excited. I had to make sure I took a deep breath and focused and relaxed and made the next pitch.”
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This time, he lowered his unsightly ERA to 6.75 – and created another lasting memory.
“Cliff really stepped up. He focused on going from pitch to pitch, out to out,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “He’s such a great competitor and very confident and that really paid off for him today.”
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