Sabathia Wins His 20th Game

After reaching an elusive milestone, CC Sabathia sounded as if he wanted to postpone celebrating it.

Sabathia became a 20-game winner for the first time in his stellar career, pitching the New York Yankees past the Baltimore Orioles 11-3 Saturday night.

"Maybe after the season," Sabathia said. "But right now we're right in the middle of this thing -- trying to win a championship, trying to win a division first. ... Maybe after the season I can sit back and enjoy it a little more. Right now, I'm just looking five days ahead and who I'm pitching against next."

Sabathia (20-6) leads the majors in victories. He twice finished seasons with 19 wins, and succeeded this year in his third try at No. 20.

The historical significance is high for a Yankees pitcher to be the first to 20 wins. History says he will win the Cy Young award. Since the award was first given out in 1956, Yankees pitchers have been the first in MLB to 20 wins in a season now four times (Sabathia being the fourth). The previous three times, those Yankees pitchers went on to win the Cy Young that same year and the Yankees went on to win the World Series. 

"He has been our ace all year, really since he's got here, and to get to 20 wins is quite an accomplishment," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Sabathia.

Sabathia already had a Cy Young Award, a World Series championship and several All-Star selections to his credit over 10 seasons. Winning 20 games was about the only thing missing on his pitching resume.

"I think it's meaningful to any pitcher," Girardi said. "I think as he gets older, he'll appreciate it more. I think CC realizes how difficult it is. As good as he's been, it's the first time he's done it."

But the ultimate tribute of how good Sabathia really is came out of the mouth of teammate Derek Jeter just minutes after the Yankees win at Camden Yards to nail down Sabathia's 20th victory of the season.

"I didn't even know it was his first time until after the game," Jeter said. "I just assumed he had done it before."

The big lefty allowed three runs on seven hits over seven innings for the AL East leaders. Sabathia, denied the big win in a home loss to the Orioles on Sept. 7, walked one and struck out four, improving to 14-2 all-time against Baltimore.

"We spoiled it once, but against a pitcher of his caliber, it's tough to do it twice," said Baltimore's Nolan Reimold.

Sabathia found one perk: "People will stop asking me about it now."

Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson homered for the Yankees, who spotted Sabathia a 2-0 lead before he took the mound and never trailed."

These guys swung the bat, put some runs up on the board and took a lot of the pressure off," Sabathia said.

Cano's two-run shot in the fifth put the second baseman at 101 RBIs. That gave the Yankees three infielders with 100 or more RBIs in a single season for the first time in franchise history -- first baseman Mark Teixeira and third baseman Alex Rodriguez previously reached the mark.

"It's big for [Cano]," Girardi said. "Everyone was concerned who was going to hit fifth for us [after] losing [Hidek] Matsui. Robbie has stepped in and been tremendous for us all year long."

Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter each had two RBIs for New York and Brett Gardner had three hits.

Jeter was hit in the ribs by Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie (10-14) on the game's first pitch and came around to score on Posada's two-run single later in the first. It marked the 13th time in Jeter's 16-year career that he has scored 100 or more runs in a season.

Jeter's sacrifice fly scored Gardner, who led off with a triple, for a 3-0 lead in the second.

The Orioles loaded the bases in the second on singles by Adam Jones and Reimold and a walk to Craig Tatum before Cesar Izturis hit a sacrifice fly.

A sacrifice fly by Ty Wigginton made it 3-2 in the third.An RBI groundout by Jeter restored the Yankees' two-run cushion in the fourth.

In the fifth, Rodriguez singled and Cano followed with a homer onto the right-field flag court, his 28th.

Robert Andino homered for the second straight game in the fifth.

Nick Swisher added an RBI double in the sixth off Orioles reliever Mark Hendrickson. Jeter reached on an infield single and Swisher then doubled into the left-field corner.

Gardner singled and later scored on Alfredo Simon's wild pitch in the eighth. Granderson added a three-run shot, his 19th, in the ninth.