Sabathia Struggles as Yankees Limp to Finish

Sabathia Struggles as Yankees Limp to Finish, Even before reliever Javier Vazquez hit three consecutive Tampa Bay batters in the seventh inning Thursday night, the game had unraveled into something like a spring-training exhibition for the Yankees.

The result gave Tampa Bay a split of the four-game series and left the Rays a half-game behind the first-place Yankees in the ersatz pennant race in the American League East. Although the Yankees do not like to discuss it, there is a sense that they may be better off finishing as the wild-card team in the division and letting the Rays finish first.

That way the Yankees would probably play the first round against Minnesota, a team beset by injuries that the Yankees usually beat, instead of Texas, a rising team that recently swept them.
It is a theory rejected by, among others, C. C. Sabathia, Thursday’s losing pitcher, Jorge Posada, his catcher, and Girardi.