NEW YORK _ CC Sabathia's 19th and final major league season started late, but it started well.
The Yankees' 38-year-old lefty worked five innings in his debut outing Saturday against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium, and he looked exceptionally sharp. Sabathia allowed no runs, one hit and no walks, throwing 42 of his 62 pitches for strikes.
He didn't get a decision, but the Yankees got a win on a combined one-hitter. They staged a three-run rally in the seventh and claimed a 4-0 victory, snapping their four-game skid.
The Yankees struggled against someone who used to be one of their own, Ivan Nova. They had hit just three singles by the time they came up to bat in the seventh inning of a scoreless game.
Then Nova (0-2) gave up a leadoff single to Gleyber Torres in the seventh and was pulled for Jace Fry. Greg Bird reached on an error by second baseman Yolmer Sanchez. Ryan Burr came on and gave up a single to Clint Frazier to load the bases.
Luke Voit followed with a pinch-hit single to center for the 1-0 lead. Kyle Higashioka then lifted a sac fly to the warning track in right, and Tyler Wade made it a three-run inning with a well-done safety squeeze to the third-base side. Aaron Judge then opened the eighth with his fourth homer.
Sabathia was activated from the injured list before the game. He was brought along at a slower pace in spring training after undergoing knee surgery and a heart procedure during the offseason and spent the first five games on the suspended list for hitting Jesus Sucre with a pitch in a game against Tampa Bay last September.
He became the first pitcher in Yankees history to allow no more than a single baserunner in his opening start of the season, according to researcher Katie Sharp.
Even with the win, the Yankees are just 6-8. They still have 11 players on the IL, so Aaron Boone was glad to welcome Sabathia back.
"I think there's something that CC obviously brings to our room from an intangible standpoint," the manager said before the game. "He's obviously a special person, a guy that's at the back end of what's been a Hall of Fame career and starting his final season. So that is meaningful.
"It feels really good to turn to a guy that's pitched in so many big games here and meant so much to this franchise to hand him the ball on a day when we're going through a tough time."
Sabathia was on a pitch count. Boone wouldn't say the number beforehand, just that he was "coming off an outing where he threw over 60, so he's certainly capable of taking a big step up with that."
That didn't happen, even though Sabathia kept the count down. The only hit off him came via a third-inning ground-ball single to center by Jose Rondon. The second baseman Wade, with a diving stop, and center fielder Brett Gardner, with a sliding catch, gave him big assists that inning. Otherwise, Sabathia turned in four 1-2-3 innings.
Domingo German picked up his third victory in three decisions after allowing no hits and striking out four in two innings. Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman finished it off.
