PHOENIX _ A career many believe will eventually land CC Sabathia in the Hall of Fame reached another milestone Tuesday night.
The 38-year-old left-hander, with his second-inning strikeout of Arizona's John Ryan Murphy, became just the 17th pitcher, and the third lefty, to reach 3,000 strikeouts (Randy Johnson, with 4,875 strikeouts, and Steve Carlton, who has 4,136, are the other lefties).
Sabathia came into the night three strikeouts short. He struck out David Peralta looking at a sinker to start the second for his first strikeout of the night, then struck out the next batter, Christian Walker, swinging at a fastball for No. 2. Former Met Wilmer Flores momentarily interrupted the chase by crushing a 2-and-1 cutter to left, his first homer of the season making it 1-0. Up stepped Murphy, a former Yankee, who swung and missed at a changeup to end the inning. Catcher Gary Sanchez pumped his fist and held on to the ball for safe-keeping.
Yankees players and coaches filed out of the dugout to congratulate Sabathia, and Diamondbacks players stood on the step of their dugout and applauded. Sabathia, wearing a large smile, came out of the Yankees dugout after a minute or so tipped his cap to the fans, many of whom were standing. In a twist, the pitcher was slated to lead off the top of the third against Zack Greinke (he struck out on four pitches).
"It's one of those awesome numbers," Aaron Boone said before the game. "3,000 hits, 500 homers, 3,000 strikeouts. I saw (as a fan growing up) Rod Carew get 3,000 (hits), Reggie get 500 (home runs). Those are magical numbers in our sport and people should take notice when people come up upon those things."
Sabathia certainly has and was hoping to get it done with in his previous start, last Wednesday in Anaheim. But it didn't work out for the California native as he struck out three over five tough innings in which he allowed five runs (four earned) and six hits.
"It's cool, especially that short list of lefties, to join that list would be cool," Sabathia said on the eve of his start against the Angels. "But it's something I can't really think about now. Focusing on making sure I can stay healthy enough to help the team win. I'm glad I'm able to get this out of the way kind of early."
