MLB: Sabathia beats Verlander, Yankees top Tigers 2-1

NEW YORK (AP)—Justin Verlander(notes) followed the trajectory of the ball and watched helplessly as Alex Rodriguez’s(notes) opposite-field fly settled softly into the second row of right-field seats.

All of a sudden, after six dominant innings, Verlander was losing.

Welcome to the new Yankee Stadium.

CC Sabathia(notes) beat Verlander in a prime pitching matchup that lived up to its billing, and Rodriguez’s pop-fly homer sent the New York Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday.

“It’s very frustrating,” Verlander said. “It’s very disappointing to throw the ball as well as I did and come away with a loss.”

Sabathia (9-6) tossed seven shutout innings, working out of trouble all afternoon for his eighth victory in 11 decisions. Mariano Rivera(notes) got three quick outs for a save and Derek Jeter(notes) made an outstanding defensive play in the ninth.“The game had a feeling that one mistake, one pitch, one swing was going to be the difference,” Rodriguez said.

Melky Cabrera(notes) legged out an infield single to drive in the second run against Verlander (10-5), who took a three-hit shutout into the seventh before running into some tough luck.

Rodriguez led off with a high fly toward Yankee Stadium’s short right-field porch. Verlander watched it the whole way, then smiled in disbelief after the ball carried over the fence.

“If it went out by 10 rows, all right. But just scraping the back of the wall is frustrating. I’d rather a guy hit it 10 miles,” Verlander said. “I didn’t think he hit it very well, but it had the right trajectory and he hit it to the right part of the field.”

It was Rodriguez’s 571st home run, two behind Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew for ninth place.

“He’s throwing 98 (mph),” Rodriguez said about Verlander, coming off his second trip to the All-Star game. “I think he supplied a lot of the power.”

Robinson Cano(notes) singled with two outs and went to third on Nick Swisher’s(notes) soft double inside the left-field line. Cabrera hit a slow roller to shortstop, with Swisher doing all he could to distract Adam Everett(notes) as he crossed over to third.

“Very smart baseball,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Everett’s throw appeared to beat Cabrera by the slimmest margin, but he was called safe by first base umpire Jeff Nelson(notes). Cabrera clapped his hands as Cano scored, putting New York ahead 2-0.

Marcus Thames(notes) homered in the eighth off Alfredo Aceves(notes), who struck out two to set up Rivera for his 507th career save and 25th in 26 chances this season.

Jeter made a signature jump throw from deep in the shortstop hole to get Brandon Inge(notes) for the second out of the ninth.

“That was an incredible play,” Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira(notes) said. “He made such a strong throw. It was perfect.”

The Yankees, who have won 15 of 20, are 40-22 since Rodriguez came off the disabled list May 8—the best record in the majors. New York also improved to 18-5 against AL Central teams.

The first-place Tigers fell to 4-12 against the AL East.

“Hopefully, sweep them tomorrow,” Sabathia said.

Verlander beat Sabathia on April 27, pitching seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts and no walks to start his seven-game winning streak.

This time, the right-hander yielded only two hits through his first 5 2-3 innings—singles by Jeter in the first and fourth.

“That’s as good as we’ve seen him. He was throwing every pitch for strikes. He’s added a slider to his repertoire,” Rodriguez said. “You just hope for a mistake. These guys, it’s hard to score three or four runs against guys like CC and Verlander. We knew one or two runs would win the game.”

A gritty Sabathia allowed five hits and three walks but stranded seven runners. Pitching like the $161 million ace the Yankees were counting on when they signed him, the big lefty also induced a pair of double-play grounders.

With runners at second and third in the sixth, Sabathia retired Ryan Raburn(notes) on a shallow fly and Inge on a soft looper.

“We had CC on the ropes a couple of times,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “We just couldn’t capitalize. Most people talk about guys who have high on-base percentages, but I’d rather take the guy who will drive them in.”

NOTES: David Cone threw out the first pitch on the 10th anniversary of his perfect game against the Montreal Expos at old Yankee Stadium. His catcher in that game was the same one as Saturday: Girardi. … New York reliever Damaso Marte(notes) (left shoulder inflammation) pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in his second rehab appearance for the Gulf Coast League Yankees.

Baseball: Crawford's glove runs AL's unbeaten streak to 13 All-Star Games

ST. LOUIS -- World Series champions change. Stadiums change. Stars of the game change.

Baseball's All-Star Game winner is always the same.

On a night to savor defense and relief pitching, Carl Crawford pulled back a home run with a leaping grab an inning before Curtis Granderson tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning. That boosted the American League to a 4-3 victory Tuesday night at new Busch Stadium, its seventh straight win since the All-Star Game has been used to determine home-field advantage for the World Series."We came here on a mission and the mission was accomplished," said Mariano Rivera, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his record fourth All-Star save, breaking a tie with Dennis Eckersley.

The home-field advantage innovation began after 2002's 7-7, 11-inning tie at Milwaukee. The AL is 12-0-1 since its 1996 defeat at Philadelphia -- the longest unbeaten streak in All-Star history.

"It is so important to get home-field advantage in the World Series," said Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon, the AL manager. "So there was a lot on the line there today."

Not even President Barack Obama's ceremonial first pitch helped the NL, which had been 4-0 previously when sitting presidents threw out the first offering. The NL scored all its runs in the second inning, and 22 of its last 24 batters made an out.

Despite starting the World Series on the road last year, Philadelphia beat the Rays in five games for the title. Jayson Werth, who ran down Justin Morneau's drive to deep left-center off Francisco Rodriguez to end the ninth, took solace from that.

"Hopefully, we'll get a chance to overcome that obstacle again this year," he said.

Crawford entered with a pinch single in the fifth and jumped at the 8-foot left-field wall to snare Brad Hawpe's leadoff drive in the seventh off winner Jonathan Papelbon, which would have put the NL ahead 4-3.

For the NL, that was typical. Somehow, it finds a way to lose.

"I still don't think there's a good answer for it," Hawpe said.

Crawford became the first non-pitcher to win the MVP with no RBIs since Willie Mays in 1968."It's definitely probably my best catch I've ever made," Crawford said. "I didn't think it was going to carry that far. But it carried and I just tried to find the wall and was able to jump up and make a play on it."

Granderson then hit a one-out triple in the eighth against Heath Bell that landed off the bottom of the left-field wall. The drive went over Justin Upton, normally a right fielder, who took a bit of a circuitous route. Bell, the loser, intentionally walked Victor Martinez, and Jones followed with a fly to deep right.

Maddon credited "these stallions in the bullpen" after Papelbon, Joe Nathan and Rivera finished a five-hitter.

"I'm used to seeing it. I've been seeing it for 17 years now," Derek Jeter, Rivera's Yankee teammate, said. "Nothing he does surprises me."

Starting with Hanley Ramirez's groundout off starter Roy Halladay that ended the second, AL pitchers retired 18 consecutive batters before Adrian Gonzalez's two-out walk in the eighth against Nathan. Orlando Hudson singled and, with pinch-hitter Ryan Howard at the plate, stole second before Howard struck out on a pitch in the dirt.

"I got caught off-guard," said Howard, a St. Louis native. "He threw me a slider, and I couldn't hold up."

Given a 40-second ovation before the game by adoring red-clad Cardinals fans in the sellout crowd of 46,760, Albert Pujols went 0 for 3 in six innings, made an error at first base in a two-run first and made some nice defensive plays. He made diving stops on Jeter and Mark Teixeira in the fifth, throwing out Ichiro Suzuki at second from his knees after Jeter's grounder.

"It was great. You put it all together, hosting the All-Star Game here in the place that you play with the fans and everybody, and a special presence by the president," Pujols said. "It was almost getting to the point where I got a little bit emotional."

Wearing sneakers, jeans and a jacket of his home state White Sox, Obama shook hands with 88-year-old Hall of Famer Stan Musial and went to the mound for the first pitch. The lanky president stood on the pitching rubber and threw left-handed from a windup. Biting his lip, he was determined to reach the plate. And he did with the help of Pujols, who moved up and scooped up the ball as Obama responded with a left-handed fist pump.

With the All-Star Game back in St. Louis for the first time since the NL won 2-1 in 10 innings across the street at old Busch Stadium in 1966, the AL broke on top 2-0 in the first against Tim Lincecum with the help of an error by Pujols, who allowed Teixeira's one-out bouncer with two on to bounce away. Jeter came around from second on the error, and Josh Hamilton hit a two-out RBI grounder.

"To be honest with you, I was feeling a lot of nerves out there," said Lincecum, who missed last year's game at old Yankee Stadium when he was hospitalized with flulike symptoms.

The NL went ahead 3-2 in the second against Halladay with four straight two-out hits. The Cardinals' Yadier Molina had an RBI single, and another run scored when Hamilton's throw from center field to third bounced off the sliding Shane Victorino for an error that allowed Victorino to score. Prince Fielder, winner of Monday's Home Run Derby, batted for Halladay and lined an opposite-field double down the left-field line.

Joe Mauer tied it in the fifth with a two-out RBI double off Chad Billingsley.

The AL has come from behind in four straight games.

"I think it's just the guys that put on the uniform -- they want to win," Mauer said. "They don't give up. We always know we have a good chance of winning."