If there was one game that the Yanks had a good shot at this weekend it was this Friday night game. Pettitte vs Schilling was about an even matchup. Papelbon was unavailable to pitch since he pitched the last two nights. ARod hit two big HRs and the Yanks held a 6-2 lead. All of that makes this loss a major disappointment. I am among the biggest of Joe Torre's fans, but he blew this game big time. Some of his mistakes:
1. Pinch running for Giambi in the 8th inning. In my opinion Torre does this way too often. I can see doing this if the Yanks are down a run and the pinch runner could possibly make a major difference in the game. But what advantage does this give you when you are up 4 runs? It only leads to yet another situation where Giambi's spot in the order comes around and someone like Ryan Thompson is grabbing some lumber rather than Giambi. This doesn't just hinder them in that spot in the order but also by not protecting ARod in the lineup. He didn't see a decent pitch to hit because they knew that they had a much lesser batter on deck. If Giambi is still in the game, ARod might see better pitches. So really by pinch running you are hurting two spots in the lineup.
2. Bringing in Mariano in the 8th. Mariano has been anything but dominant in this young season. Torre needs to have confidence in his bullpen to get him to the 9th, when it is Mo's time. This loss could play head games with Rivera for blowing his second save opportunity tonight, but also it could have ramifications to the confidence levels of people like Brunei, Farnsworth and even Vizcaino who he took out after only three batters.
3. Taking Pettitte out of the game in the 7th inning. Why take him out in this spot? He was around 100 in his pitch count, had just struck out Pena, and about to face Lugo who he retired a couple of times already tonight. You have to show some faith in someone. Either you have faith in Pettitte and let him work to Lugo (and perhaps save some bullpen arms for the two rookie starters that you have in the remainder of the weekend series) or you put faith in the bullpen arms, and don't bring in Mariano to try to get 5 outs. The Mariano thing still irks me when you think that they were going into the bottom part of the lineup, and still had a three run lead.
It is hard to understand what Torre was thinking. It seems like me might have outcoached himself. Now the Yanks have to hope that they can catch lightening in a bottle with either Karstens or Chase Wright or they will find themselves 4 games behind the Sox with another weekend series on the horizon.
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3 comments:
I cannot believe he went to Mo so early. The second I saw Joe hit the steps I had a bad feeling about what he was doing. Also, Mo is aging and these extra innings early in the season can be taxing later in the year (had he gone the full 1.2 IP that was planned). That is a spot for Bruney or Farnsworth.
I couldn't agree more about bringing Rivera in for 5 outs. I could not BELIEVE when I saw only him warming up down there. And when Torre hit the steps, I knew it wasn't the right move. In addition to bringing him into a situation with 2 guys on, do we really want to have Mo go through all 5 outs? If this works, Joe will undoubtedly do it again in big inter-division games, and before we know it Rivera is taxed in September. Ugh!!!
I dont think bringing in Mo was a bad idea. I am a sox fan and was worried about seeing Mo against a struggling VTek and Coco. The move that I didnt understand was taking Pettitte out. That didnt make any sense to me.
Also, Mike Myers does not seem to be all that effective in getting Ortiz out. I can recall 2-3 times where he has been brought in to face Ortiz for the lefty-lefty deal and failed to get him out.
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