CC battles, but stuff not sharp vs. Bucs

PITTSBURGH -- It has been a long and scenic road for CC Sabathia, one that might eventually lead to Cooperstown. But the 36-year-old Yankees left-hander required a detour lately before resuming, and he practically reinvented himself.
Sabathia owns more than 2,700 strikeouts in a Major League career that began in 2001 with Cleveland. He won an American League Cy Young Award six years later. But what he had to give up was the big heat that helped produce such accomplishments. His fastball is down to 90 mph on a good day -- and Friday's 6-3 loss to the Pirates was not one of those days.
Pitching at PNC Park, Sabathia rarely broke broke 88 mph. He has other pitches in his arsenal, but early on, they didn't help him, either.

Jordy Mercer led off the first for the Pirates with his first home run of the season. The Bucs added another run, and in the second, Josh Bell slammed a pitch deep into the left-field seats with a man aboard to make it 4-0. The Yankees clawed back but never caught up. A key late error by second baseman Starlin Castro proved costly, and all of it led to the Pirates' victory.
"His stuff just wasn't sharp," Yanks manager Joe Girardi said of Sabathia. "It just didn't seem like he's had the good fastball that he's had the first three starts, and his cutter wasn't good, and his slider was not great and his changeup wasn't great."
But it wasn't all bad. Sabathia settled down after the second, helping allow his teammates to cut into the four-run deficit.
"To battle through that, and to get us to five innings and keep us in the game, I thought he did an excellent job," Girardi said. "But his stuff wasn't crisp tonight."
In his first three starts this season, two wins and a no-decision, Sabathia gave up three earned runs in 18 1/3 innings.
He wasn't as effective against the Pirates. Pressed for an explanation, Sabathia, who was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth, had little to offer.
"I felt pretty good. Stuff was just a little short today," Sabathia said. "I tried to battle and keep things as close as possible. Just came up a little short tonight. ... My arm felt good, everything felt good, just a little short."
Catcher Austin Romine said Sabathia's pitches were "up in the zone the first couple of innings, and he was getting hit. And by the time we made the adjustment, we had given up a couple of runs.
"He got his sinker down, and he started working corners on the cutters," Romine said. "Nothing was smooth. He had to grind through a lot of innings tonight. But he still gave us a chance to stay in the ballgame."
But in the seventh inning, Castro gave chase toward the right-field line to Andrew McCutchen's pop fly. A former shortstop, Castro caught up to the ball but dropped it. Two runs scored, and 6-3 is a lot different from 4-3 late in the game.
"It's my fault," Castro said. "That's a play that I should make, especially in a close game like that. I just go out there, and the last moment I can't make the play. ... It's my ball right there, and I should make that play."