CC Sabathia pitches 8 strong innings, Yankees stop Angels cold in ALCS opener with 4-1 win

Stopped cold: Sabathia, Yankees top Angels in ALCS

NEW YORK — CC Sabathia ignored the cold, pounding the strike zone. Inside. Outside. Fastballs. Changeups. Whatever he threw Friday, the Los Angeles Angels hardly touched him.

On a blustery night more suited to bobsleds than baseballs, Sabathia pitched eight superb innings of four-hit ball to win his second straight postseason start, and the New York Yankees took advantage of a rare sloppy game by the Angels to win the AL championship series opener 4-1.

“CC was not cold at all,” the Angels’ Torii Hunter said. “Man, I faced him a lot in Cleveland, when I was in Minnesota, it was a division rivalry. The guy always pitched good in the cold. He’s got a lot of meat, now. He’s a big boy.”

The Angels looked like chilled Californians withering in the unseasonable wintry weather, making three errors that led to two unearned runs and allowing Hideki Matsui’s infield popup to drop untouched for an RBI single. But the way Sabathia pitched, the Yankees didn’t need much offense.

“That’s why we got CC,” Johnny Damon said. “To be a workhorse during the season, of course, but to shut down teams in the postseason.”

Sabathia is 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA in his first postseason with the Yankees. He gave up a double and three singles, struck out seven and walked one, going to a three-balls count just twice.

“There ain’t nothing like going after him. He sets the tone, he comes out and he attacks,” said A.J. Burnett, slated to start Game 2 for the Yankees. Joe Saunders, who hasn’t pitched since Oct. 4, goes for the Angels.

Rain was in the forecast for Saturday, and a postponement was possible.

“The elements probably won’t faze me at all,” Saunders said.

At 4-0, New York is the only unbeaten team in this postseason. The Yankees won the opener against the Angels in the 2002 and 2005 first round only to lose Game 2 both times and get beaten in the series.

It was 45 degrees at gametime, and a 17 mph wind made it feel worse.

Nick Swisher, Damon and Mark Teixeira donned special caps with ear flaps. Robinson Cano wore a ski mask.

“I was wearing the Elmer Fudd for the first time in my career, but I had a few guys with me,” Teixeira said. “As far as Robby is concerned, we’ll get on him.”

Angels shortstop Erick Aybar wore a red hood that covered his neck and ears. Los Angeles starter John Lackey, however, pitched in short sleeves.

New York, which hadn’t been to the ALCS since its epic collapse against Boston in 2004, built a 2-0 lead in the first. Derek Jeter and Damon singled, and left fielder Juan Rivera threw to the shortstop position for an error that put runners on second and third.

Alex Rodriguez’s one-out sacrifice fly — his seventh RBI of the postseason — gave the Yankees the lead, and Matsui followed with a short popup. Third baseman Chone Figgins and Aybar each thought the other would snag it. As they looked at one another, the ball fell for a single as Damon came home.

“One of us has got to catch it. Pretty simple,” Figgins said. “The mistakes that we made cost us.”

Aybar didn’t hear anyone call for the ball. Figgins shouted Aybar’s name when the ball went up but said it was probably too loud to hear.

“I thought he was going to catch it,” Aybar said. “We didn’t communicate well.”

The night didn’t get much better for Los Angeles.

After Kendry Morales’ fourth-inning single cut the deficit in half, Matsui hit an opposite-field double to left-center in the fifth that made it 3-1. Lackey’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt allowed Melky Cabrera to take second in the sixth, and Jeter followed with a run-scoring single that got by Hunter, an eight-time Gold Glove winner.

“We haven’t seen our guys crack the door open for a team like we did tonight in a long time,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “And the Yankees are going to take advantage of that.”

Fans repeatedly showered “CC” chants on Sabathia, who may start three times if the best-of-seven series goes the full length. The big lefty showed his heightened emotion, especially when he pumped a fist after striking out pinch-hitter Mike Napoli to end the seventh.

“That was a great feeling to have the stadium rocking and to be chanting my name and to be able to get a strikeout,” he said. “I don’t really show a lot of emotion a lot of times, but it came out of me there.”

Mariano Rivera followed with a hitless ninth for his record 36th postseason save, his second this year.

The sides started looking ahead to Game 2.

“They’re a very sound baseball club. And I don’t think you can count on that every night, that’s for sure,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We know that this is going to be an extremely tough series. We know they play very good baseball. It happened to them tonight. You don’t expect it to happen any further.”