Micro Joe Girardi Strikes Again

Tempting as it was, I resisted the urge to scrawl a profanity-laden diatribe against Micro Joe Girardi following last night's 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim California.  My reasoning? One shouldn't make rash decisions in the heat of battle. If only Micro Joe had followed that line of thinking. There's many reasons the Yankees lost last night's ALCS game 3; lack of hitting (or even sacrifice flying) with runners in scoring position is a start.  Despite holding a 5-1 record in the playoffs so far, the Yankee offense has spent the last two weeks on the golf course.  If not for the pitching, this would be a very frustrating harvest season for the Bombers. You expect offenses to be a little slower in the postseason.  The level of pitching is usually a bit better because you're facing the best teams in the league.  The tension level is raised because you're on baseball's biggest stage.  Every run has greater meaning. Even with all that, it's still not what lost the game last night. No, last night, the blame falls squarely on Micro Joe Girardi. I've been complaining about Girardi's use of the bullpen for most of the year.  This summer, when the Yankees started to pull away from the pack in the AL East, the media began to gush over what an incredible job Girardi had done.  It was really quite frightening to see so many people rally for a manager who:

1. Refused to carry a long reliever despite Chien-Ming Wang blowing up every five days at the start of the season.

2. Treated Alfredo Aceves like a short reliever despite beginning the season as a starter.

3. Started Aceves four days after throwing 43 pitches in four innings, allowing him to struggle through 3.1 innings and 65 pitches.  Shortly after, Aceves complained of a tired arm.  (duh)

4. Kept Phil Hughes inning count so low that it was impossible to keep him in the sixth starter role, a hole eventually filled by Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin.

5. Didn't limit Joba's innings in the beginning of the season. Girardi was less than careful because of a depleted bullpen (long reliever...  anyone?) and because of his negligence, was forced to alter the Joba Rules three times from July through September, all for the purpose of preparing Joba for the postseason... as a reliever.

6. Was excluded from a Yankee brass conference call to discuss the prescribed rest needed by Alex Rodriguez, who was coming off of hip surgery.  ARod was supposed to get a day off every couple of weeks but only missed three games from May 8th through August 12th, a span of 85 games.

Let's just say I'm not surprised at the level of ineptitude Girardi reached last night. First, let's discuss what Girardi did right:

1. Joe let Hughes pitch across three innings, entering in the bottom of the eighth to strike out Hunter and force Vlad to ground out.  Phil then pitched a perfect ninth before giving up a double to Mathis to lead off the 10th.

2. At that point, Girardi's other good move happened when he brought in Mariano Rivera.  It seems like a simple decision, but Girardi could have brought in Rivera to start the inning or worse, to start the bottom of the ninth where Hughes had set down three in a row.  Girardi wisely held on to Rivera until he was needed and Rivera came through, working through three outs with runners in scoring position without surrendering the winning run.

That's it.  Those were Girardi's good moves.  Here comes the bad.  You might want to get a drink or hit the head before you tackle this list because we're going to be here for awhile...

1. The first bad decision came before the series started, when Girardi decided to carry a third catcher and two pinch runners.  It's becoming obvious that Brett Gardner only roles on this team are pinch runner and late inning defense since Joe hasn't started him in the outfield once.  That makes the presence of Freddy Guzman on this roster all the more confusing.  Guzman brings nothing to the table except the ability to run, while Cervelli brings nothing to the table except the ability to catch.  Between the two of them, at least one roster spot has been wasted, a fact made all the more obvious when Girardi was forced to pinch hit Cervelli last night instead of a player who can actually hit, like maybe Eric Hinske, who was left off the postseason roster.  This became relevant because-

2. Girardi gave up the DH in the bottom of the 10th.  With the game tied, Torii Hunter came to the plate with one out and the bases loaded to face Mariano Rivera.  And thus was born one of the greatest panic moves in baseball history.  Fearing a sacrifice fly to the weak armed Johnny Damon in left, Girardi pulled Damon from the field mid-inning and replaced him with... the DH Jerry Hairston, Jr, thereby losing the DH.  Hairston isn't exactly chopped liver in the outfield, although I doubt many would confuse his throwing arm for Vlad Guerrero's.  The bigger issue centered on the fact that the DH was due up for the Yankees in the top of the 11th should they get out of the inning.  Rivera did get out of the inning and when Rivera's spot in the lineup came up with two outs and nobody on, rather than let Rivera stare at three fastballs, grab his mitt and pitch another inning, Girardi pulled his best pitcher from an extra inning game after one inning to pinch hit a weak hitting backup catcher with 106 major league plate appearances.

3. The problems started even earlier than that.  In the bottom of the sixth, Pettitte's pitch count started getting into the high 80s and Girardi began to warm Joba Chamberlain in the pen.  Pettitte had given up a home run the previous inning to Kendrick and was facing Vlad Guerrero with two outs and Bobby Abreu at first.  Pettitte had pitched well but wasn't fooling many batters and spent most of the game in battle with the Angels running game.  It was obvious that Pettitte wouldn't be pitching much longer, leaving little reason to keep the left-handed Pettitte in against the right-handed Guerrero, especially with Joba warming in the pen.  Well, Joba stayed in the pen, Pettitte stayed in the game, and Guerrero left the park, tying the game at 3-3.

4. Pettitte started the 7th to get the left-handed Kendry Morales and then was lifted for Joba.  Joba promptly gave up a triple and a sac fly to give the Angels the lead, followed by a double by Aybar.  Fine.  Bad pitching but not Girardi's fault.  Girardi then pulls Joba to bring in lefty Damaso Marte to force Chone Figgins to bat from the right side and gets the fly-out to end the inning.  When the Angels come to bat in the bottom of the 8th, Girardi inexplicably pulls lefty Marte for lefty Phil Coke to face left-handed Bobby Abreu. Why?  Who knows?  It was a waste of a pitcher as Coke only faced Abreu, who laced a double to center and stupidly got caught between second and third, saving the Yankees bacon.  At this point, Phil Hughes came in and the events of numbers 1 and 2 transpired.

5. Let's go to the bottom of the 11th, shall we?  Rivera has been pulled from the game so that a AA catcher can pinch hit with two outs, so Girardi is forced to go to the bullpen.  He brings in David Robertson, the hero of game 2 of the ALDS.  In that game, Robertson entered the top of the 11th with runners on first and second and no one out.  Four batters later, he had escaped the inning without allowing a run and Mark Teixeira won it with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the inning.  Robertson started the bottom of the 11th of this game by getting Juan Rivera to ground out weakly to short and Kendy Morales to pop out to left field.  So far, so good... until Girardi removes the right-handed Robertson, so effective to this point, for the right-handed Aceves.  Why?  Who knows?  Matchups?  Kendrick singles, Mathis doubles to deep center, ball game over.

Let's tally up the pitchers innings here, shall we?

6.1

0.1

0.1

0.1

1.2

1

0.2

, L (0-1) 0

Joba was ineffective so we'll give Joe a pass on that. Otherwise, Marte, Coke, Rivera and Robertson combined for a total of 2.1 innings, less than 2 outs per pitcher. Two of those pitchers, Rivera and Robertson, have been Girardi's most effective relievers so far in the postseason, yet he limited their innings and removed them for nonsensical reasons.

In Rivera's case, it was so a terrible hitter could try and extend an inning with two outs.  Granted, Teixeira and ARod were batting behind Cervelli, but the likelihood of Cervelli getting on-base compared to the value of Rivera keeping the game tied the next inning is not close to equal.

All of the DH mechanizations came into play because Girardi has insisted on pinch running for Hideki Matsui in late innings.  Matsui can't run for squat so it's difficult to argue with the logic.  However, in this game as it also happened in game two of the ALDS and of the ALCS, the pinch runners didn't score, leaving the Yankees with a bad hitter in the number five position of the batting order.  That wouldn't be such a big deal if Eric Hinske was available to pinch hit the next time up for the DH because, at the very least, he can hit the ball hard on occasion.  Instead, we have a third string catcher, a utility player, and Freddy Guzman on the bench, all ready, willing, and unable to bat effectively behind Alex Rodriguez.  The heart of the Yankee order quickly falls apart when you have Hairston, Posada, Swisher, and Melky lined up.  Or, as in game two of the ALCS, Hairston, Gardner, Cano, and Melky.  It's a miracle the Yankees won game two with all the shuffling pieces.

Pete Abe predicted it and a few others as well: eventually, Joe Girardi's micromanaging would cost the Yankees a postseason game.  One would hope it would have been just one move that backfired.  In this case, it's probably the sum total of many moves dating back to the building of this postseason roster that brought about the loss of this game.

I went into game three expecting a fight, unsure of what Pettitte was going to bring and which Jered Weaver would show up.  Pettitte kept the Yankees close enough to win which is all you can ask when they visit Anaheim.  Unfortunately, the Yankee manager did everything he could to try and outthink the game of baseball.

It made for a frustrating evening, watching a manager that's too arrogant to be smart, ruin a winnable game.  Welcome to Micro Joe Baseball.  It ain't Billy Ball, that's for sure.