Nobody's Perfect, But CC's Great

The bad news: I had to leave TV coverage with CC Sabathia having a perfect game through 6 innings. And he lost the perfecto and the no-hitter in the 7th.

The good news: The Yankees won anyway, beating the Seattle Mariners, 4-1 at The Stadium. WP: Sabathia (15-5), striking out a career-high 14, walking 3, allowing just 1 hit. SV: Mariano Rivera (26), after David Robertson pitched a strong 8th. LP: Doug Fister (3-12), although he didn't pitch poorly.

What Fister did do was give up a home run to Curtis Granderson in the 4th inning. The Yankees scored 2 more in the 5th. In the 8th, Mark Teixeira, as he did in the 2009 ALDS against the Minnesota Twins, hit a screaming liner that got over the fence so fast, John Sterling didn't have time to go into "It is high... " For each man, it was his 28th home run.

The Yankees haven't had 2 players both hit 40 home runs in a season in 50 years. You might have heard of the guys who did it in 1961: Roger Maris hit 61, and Mickey Mantle hit 54. But both Grandy and Teix look like they're on the way to 40 -- maybe even 50.

Not that it matters, outside of whether it can help the Yankees win games. As has been pointed out, a solo homer when you're down (or up) by 6 runs is a momentary thrill for a fan, but clutch hits are another story... as Alex Rodriguez also found out in the 2009 postseason.

The Yankees take the series, and handed the Mariners their team-record 17th straight loss. The series concludes this afternoon, with the man who won the American League Cy Young Award last season, Felix Hernandez -- "King," my ass, he's never seen a postseason game except on TV -- against the man who maybe should have won it, Phil Hughes, still trying to re-establish himself after an injury-plagued season.

Speaking of injuries, Eric Chavez came off the Disabled List last night, and went 1-for-3 with an RBI while starting at 3rd base. The man who usually plays there, A-Rod, is being touted as returning to action sooner rather than later. Probably in mid-August, 2 to 3 weeks. Which means he'll miss the next series against The Scum. Maybe he'll surprise us and be ready by then.

Jeter hits 3017 DONE
Rivera saves 585 16
A-Rod homers 626 137
A-Rod hits 2762 238