Yankees win as Sabathia flirts with no-hitter

Yankees hurler CC Sabathia's no-hit bid was broken up in the eighth inning by Kelly Shoppach Saturday, but New York finished the night with a 10-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

A big contingent of Yankees fans among the crowd at Tropicana Field crowd were chanting "Let's go, CC!" when Shoppach lofted a 1-0 pitch from the Yankees ace into left field to drop cleanly in front of left fielder Brett Gardner.

There was no discernable reaction from a weary Sabathia, who had been in the dugout to see the Yankees score four runs in the top of the eighth.

"As soon as it left the bat, I saw how it was floating out there. I knew it was going to be a hit," said Sabathia, who then acknowledged Shoppach, who was once his teammate in Cleveland.

"I didn't say anything. I just looked at him, he looked at me," Sabathia added. "We kind of gave each other a smile, so it's pretty cool."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi promptly came out to pull Sabathia, who walked two and struck out five.

The burly left-hander threw 69 of his 111 pitches for strikes and benefited from standout defensive plays by Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano.

Girardi said he had planned to remove Sabathia after Shoppach's at-bat - even if he still had a no-hitter going.

"Watching that pitch count go up and up and up, that was what was on my mind the most," Girardi said. "Shoppach was his last hitter no matter what. He did not know that going out. I told him when he came out. It's not something you want to do, but you have to think big picture.

"The big picture was the month of October," Girardi said. "You have to think ahead. You can't be short-sighted."

David Robertson pitched the final 1 1-3 innings to complete a combined two-hitter.

David Cone's perfect game in 1999 remains the last no-hitter for the Yankees.

Sabathia also took a no-hitter into the eighth inning for Cleveland on April 7, 2002, at Detroit, where Randall Simon broke up the bid with a leadoff single.

He pitched a one-hitter for Milwaukee at Pittsburgh on August 31, 2008.

Cano hit a two-run homer off Wade Davis in the fourth inning, and the Yankees scored two more in the fifth on Derek Jeter's run-scoring single and Teixeira's RBI double.

Teixeira's double snapped an 0 for 17 skid, the longest hitless streak to start a season in his career.

Teixeira also kept the no-hit bid alive in the sixth, when he stretched out to make a diving catch on Jason Bartlett's low liner.

In the next frame Rodriguez made a diving stop of BJ Upton's hard grounder and made the long throw to Teixeira at first to deny Upton a hit.