Slide rule in effect for CC Sabathia against Angels

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The Angels are the only American League team with a winning record (79-66 including playoff games) against the Yankees since 1996, and they are 33-20 in their last 53 games against the Yankees, including a three-game sweep in Anaheim before the All-Star break, and Vladimir Guerrero has a good idea why.
‘We always put together good at-bats against them,’ Guerrero, who has a .320 career average with 10 homers and 51 runs batted in against the Yankees, said through an interpreter today. ‘It seems like our confidence level is high against them, and when [Chone] Figgins gets on base, our bats get going.’

Figgins, the speedy leadoff batter, is a career .327 hitter against the Yankees, and he is the one player the Yankees always cite as being the most disruptive Angel on the basepaths.

But Erick Aybar, Bobby Abreu, Howie Kendrick and Maicer Izturis also have good speed, which will be on the mind of Yankees ace CC Sabathia, the Game 1 starter who will try to keep the Angels off balance by altering his moves out of the stretch and speeding up his times to the plate.

‘The slide step is something that’s helped me out a lot lately in my career,’ Sabathia said today in Yankee Stadium. ‘I don’t have to worry about my times to the plate, and if I’m being too quick with my delivery, the slide-step has really helped me out.

‘But it’s tough when you have Figgins over there and he’s jumping around, and Aybar and those guys. It’s easy to make a bad pitch or hang a pitch to one of the guys in the middle of the lineup.’

--Mike DiGiovanna in New York