CLEVELAND — Look on the bright side. If C.C. Sabathia keeps pitching like this, he’s going to come a lot cheaper this offseason.
Sabathia, who is in the final year of his contract and whose uncertain future in Cleveland has been an ongoing debate since the winter, continued his dismal start to the season Friday at Progressive Field, paving the way for a 9-7 loss to Oakland.
In his shortest start since June 21, 2006, against the Cubs, Sabathia, the American League’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, equaled a career-high by allowing nine runs (on 12 hits) through just 31/3 innings. He has surrendered 18 runs in 14 innings over three starts this season, going 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” said Sabathia, who appeared more emotional than usual during his postgame comments. “I just (stink), right now. I’m not putting guys away with two strikes, not making good pitches and just not doing the things that I need to do to be successful.
“But I’ve been here before. I’ll get things right.”
That another disastrous performance from Sabathia came against the A’s was not surprising.
The Vallejo, Calif., native has never pitched well against the team closest to his hometown, entering the season with a 2-5 record and 5.99 ERA in 12 games against Oakland. Already this year, the A’s have hung two losses on Sabathia, who is 2-7 with a 6.84 ERA over his last nine starts against them.
“Whoever it was today, it probably would have been the same result,” Sabathia said.
The A’s scored in all three innings in which Sabathia worked, but did their most damage in the second, when they scored five times to take a 6-0 lead. Of the first eight hitters in the inning, seven reached base, with Oakland batting around and the crowd showering Sabathia with boos.
The boos got louder as the A’s went up 7-1 in the third, with the crowd cheering manager Eric Wedge when he removed Sabathia, and booing the pitcher again as he made his way to the dugout.
“He just had a tough night. He really wasn’t able to get it going,” Wedge said. “We’re all going to work hard to help him find it. I felt like his first couple starts he was close. Today, he was just off.”
Pitching wasn’t a problem through the first seven innings for the A’s, with starter Joe Blanton defusing an already struggling Cleveland offense, which entered the game with the league’s fourth-lowest batting average (.239).
Blanton, who was a hard-luck loser to Cliff Lee in his first start of the year against the Indians last Sunday, allowed just a run on a solo home run to Jhonny Peralta through the first seven innings, and only four hits.
Cleveland finally caught up to Blanton and the Oakland bullpen in the eighth, rallying for six runs to make the final score respectable. Jason Michaels, Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko each had RBI hits, with Garko’s double off the wall in left field scoring two to cap the inning.
“Our approach was a little bit better coming out of Anaheim, but we got away from that today,” Wedge said. “We had a big inning, but what we need to do is be more consistent over the course of the ballgame.”
The game was delayed 59 minutes by rain during the Indians’ eighth-inning uprising, canceling the postgame fireworks display, which prevented Cleveland fans from their last shot at entertainment.    
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

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