DETROIT — All spring CC Sabathia hardly acknowledged he was in a competition for a rotation job.
He felt good physically when he reported in Tampa Feb. 15, he said, and felt just as good when the exhibition season ended.
That the Yankees waited until the very last instant to name him the winner of the competition against Ivan Nova was of little consequence, Sabathia’s expectation all along that he’d be the fifth starter.
He was, he kept saying “ready to go” for the regular season.
In arctic conditions Saturday afternoon, against a lineup that didn’t look like a good matchup at all, Sabathia showed he was just that.