NEW YORK --
With 2,994 strikeouts, Sabathia’s next start could see him become the 17th pitcher to reach the 3,000 plateau. He trails John Smoltz (3,084) by 90 strikeouts, and Sabathia's current figure ranks fifth in American League history (first among left-handers).\n\n• [For the first time ever, No. 0 faces No. 0](https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/no-0-faces-no-0-for-first-time-in-mlb)\n\nThough the 38-year-old Sabathia has never been one to study the back of his baseball card, he acknowledged that the strikeout tally began to fill his mind during Spring Training. Five years down the line, manager Aaron Boone believes that the rest of the sport will be offering Sabathia's long and meritorious career a deserved place in the sun.\n\n\"He's going to be a Hall of Famer,\" Boone said. \"\\[He had\\] periods of his career where he was dominant, where he's that Cy Young-caliber ace pitcher. Now, later in his career, he was really able to figure out a way to reinvent himself. The cutter became a big pitch for him these last few years.\"
\n\nBorrowed from Andy Pettitte's tool kit, that pitch proved to be largely unreliable on Friday, sailing up and away from its intended location. Huddling with catcher
\n\n \n\nNew York posted its third victory in four games as Sabathia held Kansas City to an unearned run and three hits.
The last time that the Yankees saw Junis, he uncorked a fastball that fractured
\n\nSabathia seemed to be out of the inning when Billy Hamilton hit a weak grounder to first base, but