CC Sabathia Vs The Red Sox: How A Hall Of Famer Battled Against Boston

CC Sabathia went 18-15 against the Red Sox in 44 career starts with a 4.25 ERA. Sure, that is a winning record, but the Red Sox had the highest batting average against CC of any team he pitched over 40 games against. Kansas City is the nearest team to Boston’s .263 BA with a .255 BA over 42 games.

But Sabathia had many career highlights against the Red Sox. In Boston’s magical 2018 season, on the way to a record of 108-54, one of those 54 losses came at the hands of CC Sabathia and the Yankees. The 37-year-old pitched seven innings, holding the potent offense to only one run.

By that late in his career, Sabathia had reinvented himself as a control and finesse pitcher, a far cry from his early days with Cleveland as a flame-throwing lefty. He won the Cy Young in 2007, the height of his Cleveland powers. That season, he also pitched seven innings of one-run ball against the Red Sox, but that was enough to earn him the loss in that start. Cleveland didn’t have the high-powered offense of Aaron Judge and company to back up CC that day.

Although Sabathia only won that single Cy Young Award, he led the league in wins his first two seasons with the Yankees, 2009 and 2010. In 2009, he went 3-1 versus the Red Sox with a 2.22 ERA, the best ERA against any team he faced more than once that season. In 2010, he again started four games against Boston but went 1-0 with a 3.96 ERA.

While Red Sox fans witnessed a Hall of Fame career from afar, Sabathia struggled in Boston. He had a winning record in Boston, going 7-6 in 20 starts, but his ERA was 5.08. That is his highest ERA in any away ballpark where he pitched more than 20 games. The next closest was Baltimore, where his ERA was more than a full point lower, at 3.81.

If you were lucky enough to see Sabathia pitch in Boston, you probably saw the Sox score some runs off the Hall of Fame lefty, and that is not something many fanbases can say. The Red Sox were a thorn in Sabathia’s side, but that didn’t stop him from being inducted into Cooperstown.