CC Sabathia First Pitcher to 10 Wins

CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees won his 10th game of the season today. The win came against the Colorado Rockies and helped Sabathia become the first pitcher in baseball with 10 wins this season.

More importantly for the team, it allowed the Yankees to move into a tie for first place in the American League East. In a year in which the Boston Red Sox were supposed to control the division, that is a pretty interesting development at this point in the season.

It's pretty interesting how well the Yankees have been playing since Derek Jeter got injured and had to be pulled from the starting lineup. It not only put his chase to 3,000 hits on hold, but it allowed manager Joe Girardi to not worry about what to do with Jeter in the lineup anymore.

Saturday's game was pretty one-sided, with the Yankees taking a nice 8-1 lead into the ninth inning. Sabathia shut down the Rockies, giving up just one run in eight innings. He was able to spread out seven hits by the Rockies offense and struck out nine of them in the process. He improved to 10-4 with a 3.25 ERA. Those stats are very deserving of a spot on the American League All-Star team when it is selected in July.

The Yankees offense was wide awake on Saturday as well, as it notched eight runs on 15 hits. Six players had at least two hits, with designated hitter Jorge Posada ending the game with three. The Yankees also drew four walks and could have blown this game wide open if not for all the runners they left on base. Mark Teixeira hit his 22nd home run in the eighth inning and Alex Rodriguez added three RBI.

With the Yankees playing impressive lately and the Red Sox expected to do the same, it's hard not to feel bad for the Tampa Bay Rays. They have the third-best record in the American League (42-34), but if the season ended today they wouldn't be in the playoffs. They trail the Yankees and Red Sox by 2 1/2 games and already know they have to catch one of those teams if they want to have a shot at making another World Series.

The Yankees will play Game 3 of their series with the Rockies on Sunday. Ivan Nova will take the mound at Yankee Stadium.