Tale of Two CC's

The 2009 Baseball postseason is underway, and the first day of action can be summed up as a tale of two CC's. The Yankees version, C.C. Sabathia, dawned the crooked cap of his new team for the first time in the playoffs, and looked every bit to be the ace they are paying him to be. He allowed 1 earned run over six and two-thirds innings, striking out 8 and walking no one. The key for Sabathia's success is the zero walks, when he goes bad, it is usually due to his inability to throw strikes. The Yankees won with relative ease 7-2 over the AL Central champs, let's see if Sabathia can keep this pace when the pressure is squarely on his broad shoulders.

A 1993 graduate of Trinity High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, is the second in the tale of two CC's. Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals, has pitched at a Cy Young level all season long, though he is most likely third in line for the award behind teammate Adam Wainwright and Tim Lincecum. Carpenter pitched at more of a Matt Young level on this night, game 1 of the NLDS. He gave up a season high 4 walks, along with 9 hits, in just five innings. For just the third time in 29 starts this season, he didn't produce a Quality Start. The Redbirds have to be disappointed in their ace, yet luckily, they still have an ace in the hole. Adam Wainwright, every bit the equal of Carpenter this year, is slated for game 2. Before this series, I loved the Cardinals due to their one-two punch at the top of the rotation, now I'm not so sure.

Two CC's, one long day of baseball. All of the home teams won on day one, let's hope for the Sox stake that the home team win streak is broken tomorrow.