Clutch Cat: Sabathia pitches Yankees to ALCS

• The Yankees reached the ALCS for the third time in four years
• CC Sabathia tossed a complete game, allowing just one run on four hits
• Alex Rodriguez was benched for Game 5

NEW YORK -- It was the potential for moments like Friday night that was the lure for CC Sabathia to sign with the New York Yankees as a free agent four years ago.

Postseason baseball at Yankee Stadium. A winner-take-all game. The chance to advance the Yankees one step closer to a 28th world championship.

Sabathia carried a shutout into the eighth inning and pitched a four-hitter as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 in the decisive Game 5 of their American League Division Series.

"Having a chance to win a championship every year, the organization gets exactly what you need to try to put together a championship team and that's all you can ask for as a player," Sabathia said. "And to be able to come out here and play in these games, especially in the Bronx for this organization, it feels good."

The left-hander pitched his first complete game in 17 career postseason starts while striking out nine and walking two.

Sabathia improved to 7-1 with a 3.09 in 12 postseason starts for the Yankees. He has also held opponents to a .194 batting average this season at Yankee Stadium.

"It is what I'm here for," Sabathia said of his postseason success in pinstripes. "It is what I play the game for. I guess I should feel a little pressure or something like that, but I don't. It can be Game 1 or Game 15, it doesn't matter. I feel like I need to go out and win every time out and I think that takes the outside pressure off me. I put so much pressure on myself to go out and perform well that I expect it."

The Yankees will host the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at 8:07 p.m. ET on Saturday. Veteran lefty Andy Pettitte (5-4, 2.87 in the regular season) will pitch for New York against Doug Fister (10-10, 3.45).

Sabathia also won Game 1 and allowed just three runs in 17 2/3 innings against the Orioles in the series.

"He didn't pitch all five games but it certainly felt like it," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. "He's a great pitcher and we had very few opportunities against him. We had a shot there in the eighth and he took it to another level, if there is such a thing."

Sabathia had a one-hitter going into the eighth, but the Orioles scored their only run on Lew Ford's single. Baltimore then loaded the bases with one out but Sabathia extricated himself from the jam by striking out Nate McLouth and getting J.J. Hardy to ground out to shortstop.

Sabathia then set down the side in order in the ninth inning.

"I talk about CC as being as one of those big, strong pitchers that usually gets better as the game goes on," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "That's who he is. You think about the eighth inning and that's where we saw the highest velocity all night from him. He has a way of being able to step it up when he gets into a jam."

Sabathia admitted the adrenaline started flowing with the bases loaded and he decided to use it to his advantage rather than fight it.

"I was trying to back off a little bit and not try to overthrow and leave the ball over the plate," Sabathia said. "After I got a couple of runners on, that went out the window and I was back to being fired up and trying to be aggressive with fastballs."

Jason Hammel turned in a solid start while taking the loss. He allowed two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings with two walks and six strikeouts.

Neither team put a runner on base until McLouth led off the top of the fourth with a single for Baltimore.

Hammel was perfect until the fifth when New York scored the first run. Mark Teixeira led off with a single, stole second -- the big first baseman had two stolen bases in the regular season, giving him 21 in his 10-year career -- and scored on Raul Ibanez's single up the middle.

The Orioles almost tied the game in the sixth when McLouth hit a drive down the right-field line off Sabathia that right-field umpire Fieldin Culbreth ruled foul. The umpires upheld the call after reviewing replays.

Ichiro Suzuki smacked an RBI double off the fence in right-center in front of the Yankees' bullpen in the sixth inning to increase the lead to 2-0.

Curtis Granderson hit a solo home run for the Yankees in the seventh off lefty Troy Patton, his first of the postseason after going deep 43 times in the regular season. Granderson went 2-for-3 after getting just one hit in 16 at-bats in the first four games of the series.

"That third run is a huge run for us," Girardi said. "For Curtis, the big thing is when he swings at strikes, he is extremely dangerous."

Granderson remained in the lineup for Game 5 while third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in baseball with a $29 million salary this season, was on the bench.

Girardi pinch hit for Rodriguez in the late innings of Games 3 and 4 and did not want Rodriguez facing Hammel after going 0-for-11 with nine strikeouts against right-handers in the series. Overall, Rodriguez went 2-for-16 with nine strikeouts.

Granderson and Rodriguez weren't the only Yankees hitters who struggled. Robinson Cano was 2-for-22 and Nick Swisher was 2-for-18.

Two Orioles All-Stars also had dreadful series. Adam Jones, widely considered Baltimore's team MVP this season, finished 2-for-23 and Matt Wieters went 3-for-24.

The Orioles had been one of baseball's best stories this year. They took the Yankees to the final day of the regular season before finishing two games behind them in the AL East standings but earned the second AL wild card following 14 consecutive losing seasons.

The Yankees and Orioles split 18 regular-season games and the first four games of the ALDS before New York finally decided things in the final game of the season between the division rivals.

"It's been about much fun as I have had in the big leagues, watching how our players played the game every day, the standard they held themselves to and the way they raised the bar in Baltimore," Showalter said.

Yet the Orioles couldn't get over the bar Sabathia set in Game 5.

"CC is our ace," Girardi said. "That's the bottom line. He has been there. He has done that."