Yankees' Sabathia: Pettitte has 'been that constant'
If the New York Yankees really want to make a run at the AL East title, they're going to need a productive CC Sabathia.
The 34-year-old Yankees starter hasn't been very CC-like this season, posting a 3-7 record with a 5.65 ERA in 15 starts.
Andy Pettitte, however, believes he can get back on track. "He's just got to stay with it," Pettitte told MLB.com. "He's got to trust himself. He's been a great pitcher for so, so long. He has to continue to go out there and take one pitch at a time. I know it sounds like a cliche, but just continue to work. I tried to work my way through it and I would just tell him the same thing. I think it'll change."
Pettitte knows a thing or two about being an effective pitcher late into a career and that's something Sabathia is trying to learn.
"I ask him a million questions. I always have," Sabathia said. "That's how I am, I guess. I don't know if he can catch every game, but he'll call me and say, 'Hey, I caught this,' or, 'I saw this pitch in the third inning.' He's pretty good about that.
"It's been hard for me to not scrap everything and start throwing sidearm, submarine. Right now, he's been that constant, 'Keep plugging away, keep plugging away.'"
Manager Joe Girardi agrees that Sabathia can improve, despite his age. "CC was really a fastball-slider-change, where Andy was more fastball-cutter-curveball," Girardi said via MLB.com. "It's just as you get older, understanding who you are. The mental part of it, understanding I don't have my 95s and 96s anymore, I have to compete a little bit different and be a little bit smarter. I think that's the biggest way he can help."
(h/t MLB.com)
Photo credit: Elsa/Getty Images
