Sabathia carried a perfect game into the seventh inning Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, retiring the first 19 batters he faced, 12 by strikeout.
But a solid single by Brendan Ryan with one out in the seventh inning broke up the perfecto. We'll never know if Sabathia would have pulled it off without an interruption from Mother Nature.
With one out in the fifth inning and Sabathia riding a streak of seven consecutive strikeouts, one shy of the American League record, a torrential downpour at Yankee Stadium sent fans scurrying for cover and the grounds crew out quickly with the tarp.
It probably seemed like divine intervention for the Mariners.
They looked as lifeless and overpowered as their 16-game losing streak would suggest. Sabathia expended just 62 pitches to power into the sixth inning on a night the odds were greatly in his favor. The Mariners entered the game a major league-worst 8-19 against left-handed starters and were hitting just .214 against them.
After a half-hour rain delay, a Mariner managed to put a ball in play. Greg Halman's weak popup to first baseman Mark Teixeira broke up the strikeout streak. However, Chone Figgins ended the sixth with a groundout to shortstop Derek Jeter.
Sabathia then fooled Ichiro Suzuki badly with an off-speed pitch, fanning him to begin the seventh. Ryan's single, however, prevented Sabathia from becoming the first Yankee since David Wells on July 19, 1999, to throw a perfect game.
He still carried a 3-0 lead and a career-best 14 strikeouts into the eighth inning.
A second rain delay before the bottom of the seventh might have been Sabathia's final undoing, as he walked the first three batters he faced in the eighth before being replaced by David Robertson.
See photos of: New York Yankees, C.C. Sabathia
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