CC's Last Game In Cleveland Is a Bust

CC Sabathia began his career with the Cleveland Indians in 2001. He's been with the Yankees since 2009. Barring a Playoff matchup, yesterday's game at Progressive Field was probably his last appearance against the Indians.

It didn't go so well. He was staked to a 2-0 lead before the Indians even came to bat, thanks to Didi Gregorius hitting his 1st home run of the season. He took that lead into the bottom of the 4th, but fell apart. He only went 5 innings, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, albeit with 5 strikeouts and only 1 walk.

Given the state of the Yankee bullpen, especially with Masahiro Tanaka missing his start today because his wife had a baby, the right thing to do would have been to ask CC, who'd thrown 69 pitches, to pitch the 6th inning despite his balky knee.

But Aaron Boone -- possibly on the orders of Brian Cashman, who doesn't know a damn thing about pitching -- took CC out. Bad Move 1. Boone brought in Jonathan Holder. Bad Move 2. Or was Bad Move 1 having Holder on the major league roster in the first place?

Is Holder the new Bob Shirley, the new Greg Cadaret, the new Phil Coke, the new Ted Lilly, the new Scott Proctor, the new Boone Logan, the new Tyler Clippard? I mean, what's the point, seeing as how Luis Cessa is already on the roster?

Holder allowed 3 runs in the 6th, putting the game out of reach. And then Boone (or Cashman) decided we hadn't suffered enough, and brought Cessa in, and he allowed a run in the 8th.

Indians 8, Yankees 4. WP: Adam Plutko (2-1). No save. LP: Sabathia (3-3). The Yankees are now 1-4 on this roadtrip, which began in Toronto.

The series concludes this afternoon. Once again, the Yankees will start Chad Green, hope that he can give them 2 innings that aren't an absolute disaster, and go eeny-meeny-miney-mo with the bullpen -- which, of course, since the 2013 retirement of Mariano Rivera, has no Mo. Shane Bieber is the intended starter for Cleveland.