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Monday, July 21, 2014

This Is Another One Of Those " Go To Bed Early " Games



We could all tell that the kid did not have his best stuff tonight.

Flash and O'Neil were both talking about it early.  And his pitch count was way up there by the top of the 6th inning.

Nerves from his Yankee stadium debut can be a culprit.  His three errors caused a lot of those extra pitches.  He was shaky and it showed.

Still, he soldiered on against a team in the toilet, and held the Rangers to 1 run.

But Girardi blew it, big time.

The kid had still given the Yankees 5 2/3 innings of 1 run ball.  He could not get the third out in the sixth and should have been pulled after the base hit up the middle.  That way, he is guaranteed not to take a loss.  A reward for gutting it out on a lousy day….primarily because his own defense failed him.

But he held up his end of pitching, despite endless 3-2 counts and fouled off pitches.  He was at the 100 mark, anyway.  Time to take a bow and think of a better day.

So what does Joe do?  He leaves him in the game  so he can walk the next batter, and then brings in the asshole lefty from Boston who always screws up.

I look up, after Derek hit into a predictable rally killing, game killing, bases -loaded double play ( which I correctly predicted ) the previous inning, and it is 4-2 Rangers.  Clearly, now that Tex is hurt again, we aren't scoring more than 2 runs tonight.

We had a shot at a 2-1 win, but Girardi stayed too long with a kid who was tiring, and did not have his best stuff anyway.  What would have been a positive experience, and a major relief for the kid ( leaving the game with the Yankees ahead 2-1, despite his three errors), now becomes a nightmarish experience and, for sure, a loss. I'll be surprised if he ever plays well again at the stadium.

The Rangers were 4-24 in their last 28 games.

Girardi will make them well again.

Really a terrible job of decision-making tonight.  This one is on you.

2 comments:

JM said...

But...but, Alphonso! Girardi is a genius for having them only 4 games out after all of those horrible injuries and all! He's just brilliant!

Didn't Bacharach write a song called "My Little Black Book"? The band Love did a great cover way back when.

(OK, it was really a red book, but Love's cover is still amazing.)

KD said...

You absolutely nailed it, Alphonso. Girardi should have pulled the kid before he was eligible for the loss. But Joe treated him like a pariah and left him to hang out there. maybe he thought he was teaching the kid a lesson? who knows. But to me it was a damn cold-hearted thing to do to a kid trying to find his way in MLB.