Sabathia looks to remain hot as Yanks visit Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Rumors of CC Sabathia's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

The New York Yankees' 6-foot-6, 300-pound left-hander is probably the hottest pitcher in the majors of late, going 5-0 with a 1.11 ERA over his last five starts heading into his start Tuesday against the Los Angeles Angels.

But if not for Sabathia's guaranteed $25 million this year, the Yankees would not have been blamed had they just let him go altogether before this season. He's 36 and has been bothered by knee issues the past few years, and his results have reflected his struggles -- he had just three wins in 2014, six in 2015 and nine last season.

Sabathia, though, has been able to turn things around, thanks in part to his ability to adjust to his diminished velocity and simply staying healthy.

"Obviously, getting hurt was the biggest thing, not knowing my future especially at my age," Sabathia told the New York Daily News. "To be healthy and to be able to repeat my delivery feels really good."

It's also helped that Yankees manager Joe Girardi has kept faith in Sabathia, despite all the reasons not to.

"He's always been that guy that is a fierce competitor," Girardi told the Daily News. "And when you have that in you, you have the ability to make changes and figure things out. And it took him some time to figure out what he had to do, but there's a lot of heart in that guy."

Command of his cutter has been one of the keys for Sabathia.

"He's pitched really well this year. He had a few starts where he lost his cutter, but he found it again, and it sets up everything for him," Girardi said. "But I think he takes a lot of pride in it. He's been that guy his whole career that you can turn to when you needed a big win, and he still does it."

Sabathia, who is 9-9 with a 4.03 ERA in 20 career starts against the Angels, will face Los Angeles' reliever-turned-starter JC Ramirez. Ramirez is 6-4 with a 4.33 ERA overall, and is coming off a couple of rough outings -- he allowed 11 runs and 18 hits in 9 1/3 innings over his last two starts.

The Angels, though, have been doing it with offense lately. They've scored 32 runs in their last three victories, getting help from up and down the lineup. In particular, they've gotten a resurgence from Kole Calhoun, who had gotten off to a slow start. Calhoun hit just .158 in May, a month in which he had more strikeouts (26) than hits (16).

But he's been hot in June, hitting .421 (16 for 38) with five homers and 14 RBI in 11 games.

"There were mechanical adjustments that he'd tried along the way," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told mlb.com. "He was really jumpy at the plate, expanding the zone, definitely not seeing the ball as well as he needed to. And he's worked on it. I think it's just been an evolution where now he's started to feel more comfortable."