Sabathia Checks into Rehab

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia is checking into an alcohol rehabilitation centre and will miss the postseason.

The team issued a statement from the pitcher Monday, a day before New York plays Houston in the AL wildcard game. Sabathia, the 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner, said he took the step to receive the care he needs and become the kind of person “I can be proud of.”

“I love baseball and I love my team-mates like brothers, and I am also fully aware that I am leaving at a time when we should all be coming together for one last push toward the World Series,” he said. “It hurts me deeply to do this now, but I owe it to myself and to my family to get myself right. I want to take control of my disease, and I want to be a better man, father and player.”

Sabathia was 6-10 with a 4.73 ERA this year, slowed by his surgically repaired right knee. After returning from the disabled list and using a tighter brace, the 35-year-old left-hander was 2-1 with a 2.17 ERA in five starts and got the win against Boston that week that clinched the Yankees’ return to the postseason following a rare two-year absence.

“As difficult as this decision is to share publicly, I don’t want to run and hide,” Sabathia said. “Being an adult means being accountable. Being a baseball player means that others look up to you. I want my kids — and others who may have become fans of mine over the years — to know that I am not too big of a man to ask for help. I want to hold my head up high, have a full heart and be the type of person again that I can be proud of. And that’s exactly what I am going to do.”

His move is another blow to the Yankees’ pitching staff, slowed in September by Masahiro Tanaka’s hamstring injury and ineffective outings by Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova.

Sabathia, who helped New York win the 2009 World Series during his first season in the Bronx, is signed through next season. His deal includes a 2017 club option that would become guaranteed if his left shoulder doesn’t get hurt.

“I am looking forward to being out on the field with my team next season playing the game that brings me so much happiness,” Sabathia said.

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Rays Run Riot at Yankees

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Up by nine runs in the late innings, the Tampa Bay Rays wound up needing their closer to finish off this latest victory.

"It's not always an oil painting," manager Joe Maddon observed.

Masterpiece or not, here's a portrait of a winning team: From last place a month ago to now leading the tough AL East.

Jeremy Hellickson retired Yankees newcomer Alfonso Soriano with the bases loaded to preserve an early lead and the streaking Rays tagged CC Sabathia once again, beating New York 10-6 Friday night.

The Rays have won 20 of 23 and took sole possession of the division lead for the first time since June 10, 2012. Recently seven games behind, Tampa Bay moved a half-game ahead of Boston.

"Of course there's gratification in it, but there's no complacency," Maddon said. "It's always good to validate what you're doing."

Ben Zobrist, Yunel Escobar and Evan Longoria doubled during a six-run burst in the second inning, and James Loney later homered and drove in four runs as the Rays got way ahead in the seventh.

"We were playing such a great game tonight. Not a good game, a great game," Maddon said. "Unfortunately, we let them up a little."

"You don't want an under-duress moment after you're up 10-1 and have to sweat one out," he said. "That's not cool."

Well supported all season, Hellickson (10-3) won his sixth straight decision. Fernando Rodney, the Rays' fourth pitcher in a three-run ninth, got the last out for his 25th save.

"It's not hard to win games when I'm getting eight, nine, 10 runs a game," Hellickson said.

Trying to add power, the Yankees acquired Soriano from the Chicago Cubs before the game, trading a minor league pitcher to get the seven-time All-Star and lots of cash to cover much of his contract.

Soriano got his chance to make a sudden impact, batting with the bases loaded, two outs in the third and the Yankees trailing 6-1. With Tampa Bay's infield overshifted to the left side, he ran the count full before lofting a routine fly to right that ended the inning.

The 37-year-old Soriano, who began his career with the Yankees in 1999 and drew a big ovation in his return, went 0 for 5, scored once and drove in a run. He got an RBI with a bases-loaded force out in the ninth.

"It's a good day for me today to have a chance to put on the uniform again," he said.

"I hope we have a better chance tomorrow," he said. "It's a tough day tonight."

Soriano did more on defense, catching a fly to start the game, making a throw that helped nail a runner and running down a foul ball.

Hellickson gave up one run and four hits in six innings, retiring his last nine batters and sending the Yankees to their seventh loss in 10 games. He also flashed a fast glove, snaring Ichiro Suzuki's liner right in front of his face.

Sabathia (9-9) was booed early and was hit hard for the third straight start, allowing 22 runs over 14 innings in that span. He got a true Bronx cheer when he struck out Loney while escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the third.

Sabathia joined Chien-Ming Wang as the only Yankees pitchers since 1935 to allow at least seven runs in three straight starts.

"I feel like throughout my career I've been able to kind of avoid and pitch out of the big innings. Here lately I haven't been able to make a pitch," he said.

"We're right in the middle of this thing and if I can help us out, I feel like we would be doing a lot better. But getting no help from me is making it tough," he said.

The Rays have been particularly prickly for Sabathia. He is just 4-11 in 23 starts against them, including four this season, since joining the Yankees.

A two-out walk to eighth-place hitter Jose Lobaton set up Sam Fuld's RBI single in the second and Desmond Jennings followed with a bunt single that catcher Austin Romine threw away for another run. Longoria delivered a two-run double and scored on Wil Myers' single.

Loney had an RBI single in the fifth and hit a three-run homer in the seventh off Adam Warren.

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Red Sox Napoli Beats Yankees

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Mike Napoli's teammates weren't so concerned about what he did in the middle innings after his two home runs -- one to start things off, the other to finish it.

Napoli hit a three-run shot after the Red Sox fell behind early, then he ended the game with a solo shot with two outs in the 11th inning, and Boston beat the New York Yankees 8-7 on Sunday night.

"He's a dangerous batter," Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "He can do damage at any point in the game."

Napoli ended the 4-hour, 46-minute game at 12:53 a.m. Monday.

The Red Sox scored seven runs after falling behind 3-0, thanks in part to Napoli's three-run homer in the third inning that cleared the seats above the Green Monster and the billboard above them. But they coughed up the lead when New York scored two in the sixth and two in the seventh to tie it 7-all.

It stayed that way until Napoli hit a 3-2 pitch from Adam Warren (1-1) into the center field bleachers. Napoli also struck out three times and grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the eighth.

"I had a chance to win it in the eighth -- to put a run across with a sac fly," said Napoli, who has four homers in his last 12 games and 13 for the season. "That's what is so great about this game, you always get another chance. You've just got to keep going. You can't do anything about it."

Pedro Beato (1-0) pitched the 11th for the win, giving up a single to Eduardo Nunez before he was erased trying to steal second; replays showed he was barely safe.

Nunez, Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano had three hits apiece for the Yankees. New York had runners at first and second with one out in the 10th but Drake Britton, making his second major-league appearance, got Lyle Overbay to ground into a double play.

"Only his second time out there, against a good club and our rivals," Saltalamacchia said.

The Red Sox are 60-40 through their first 100 games, 1½ games in front of the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and seven in front of the fourth-place Yankees. Boston won the three-game series between the longtime rivals on a weekend when New York learned that both shortstop Derek Jeter and third baseman Alex Rodriguez won't be able to return from the disabled list any time soon.

"We battled back and gave ourselves an opportunity to win that game," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It's a shame we had to lose in extra innings."

Boston moved Ryan Dempster up in the rotation to give Jon Lester a couple of extra days' rest after the All-Star break, but things started off poorly for the Red Sox right-hander.

Gardner, who also had three hits on Saturday, led off the game with a single, and then went to third when Dempster fielded Ichiro Suzuki's comebacker and threw it into center field for an error. Suzuki stole second, and Saltalamacchia threw the ball into center for another error that allowed Gardner to score and Suzuki to move to third. He scored on Vernon Wells' single to make it 2-0.

New York took a 3-0 lead in the second on Cano's RBI single.

The Red Sox rallied with a four-run third inning, taking the lead on Napoli's three-run homer.Shane Victorino added a two-run single in the fourth on a high chopper that bounced over the third baseman's head, and Jonny Gomes homered in the fifth to make it 7-3.

But The Yankees scored two in the sixth on RBI singles by Gardner and Cano before Overbay hit into an inning-ending double play. They tied it 7-all in the seventh on two singles, two walks -- one of them a 15-pitch at-bat by Gardner -- and third baseman Jose Iglesias' error when he charged a bunt and threw the ball into the photographers' box.

That saved CC Sabathia from the loss, despite following up his worst start of the year with one almost as bad. He allowed seven runs on nine hits, two walks and two hit batters, striking out five in five-plus innings.

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