McAdam: ERod bows to experienced Sabathia as Yanks win Round 1 in a rout

NEW YORK -- There are things you learn after 18 seasons in the big leagues, lessons you absorb. Some are subtle while others would appear rather self-evident.

Here's one: when pitching in a hitter-friendly ballpark on a very warm night, it's far better to make pitches on the edge of the plate than to throw inviting fastballs right over the middle.

On Friday, CC Sabathia pitched like the veteran he is, having retained some immutable truths. When Sabathia was making his major league debut in 2001, his opponent Friday, Eduardo Rodriguez was all of 8-years old.

Over the course of their showdown, the difference in experience could not be more stark.

It's not as though Rodriguez was unaware of the dangers of serving up pitches to the likes of Didi Gregorius or even relative newcomers like Miguel Andujar and Greg Bird. But pitchers aren't graded on intent; they're judged on results, and Rodriguez, regardless of his plan, couldn't locate when he needed to and paid a predictable price.

For the first three innings, he largely skirted trouble except for a booming leadoff triple to Gleyber Torres and a subsequent single by Andujar, resulting in a 1-0 lead. But while pitching carefully to Giancarlo Stanton to open the fourth, he forfeited an 0-and-2 count and issued a leadoff walk, and things unraveled from there.

Next came a double by Gregorius, then a sacrifice fly by Torres and back-to-back homers by Andujar and Bird. In a flash, the Yankees had built themselves a 5-0 lead and were well on their way to an 8-1 rout in the series opener.

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"I missed a couple of pitches in the strike zone and that's what happened today,'' he offered by way of explanation. "They made an adjustment and hit the ball out of the ballpark.''

Andujar hit a cutter, Rodriguez recalled, while Bird was beneficiary of a fastball over the heart of the plate and "you know what happens when you miss like that.''

What happens is good major league hitters don't miss.

Before Friday, Rodriguez had always pitched well here, sporting a career 2.25 ERA spread across six starts. In those six outings, he had limited the Yankees to just four homers. On Friday night, he allowed half that many in the span of two hitters.

As recently as May, when Rodriguez last pitched here, he steamrolled (mostly) the same Yankee lineup for five innings, allowing just one hit. In that game, he seldom threw his changeup, preferring to attack New York with harder stuff like cutters and four-seamers.

It appeared as though he attempted the same strategy again Friday, with far less success. This time, it was hard stuff being hit even harder -- within the first handful of at-bats, the Yankees registered three balls with an exit velocity over 100 mph.

Rodriguez ducked a question about the usage of his changeup and again circled back to the facts at hand. "No matter who you're facing, if you miss around the plate, (hard-hit damage) is going to happen," he said.

His manager, Alex Cora, speculated that Rodriguez may have fallen prey to a problem experienced by David Price in Texas earlier this season.

"I don't know if there was enough separation between the fastball and changeup,'' said Cora. "I can't recall too many swings-and-misses with the changeup or bad swings on the changeup, and we know that's his pitch. I've got to take a look at it tomorrow, sit down and see if the usage was good, if the mix of his pitches was good. You look at the scoreboard and you see (velocity) at 89 mph, 90 mph. I don't know if they were sinkers or changeups. Nowadays, it doesn't matter if you throw 97 mph or 98 mph, if you don't mix it up, hitters are going to catch up to the fastball.''

Meanwhile, Sabathia wasn't the least bit concerned with radar readings, because he was masterful with his command, consistently sitting on the edges of the strike zone, almost daring Red Sox hitters to take bad swings at tough pitches.

Call it innate. Call it pitching with intelligence.

And call Friday night in favor of the Yankees, as a wily soon-to-be 38-year-old did what the 25-year-old either can't yet do, or hasn't quite mastered.