Joe Girardi engages in a bit of overmanaging, pulling the hot pitcher in David Robertson after only 2/3 of an inning to pitch to Howie Kendrick with the bases empty. Aceves, who has struggled this postseason, gave up a single to the Yankee-killer Kendrick and then a game-winning double to Jeff (just above the Mendoza line) Mathis. I don’t like to second-guess the manager usually, but this decision made no sense to me, and unfortunately, it worked in the Angels’ favor.
For all the bridge-jumpers out there, the Yankees are still leading the series 2-1 and have their ace going up against the inconsistent Scott Kazmir. Time for CC to come up huge once again.
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31 Responses to D'oh
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I think CC will have no problem coming up huge in this game tomorrow, however one thing about today’s game that changes tomorrow is that you may see Girardi have a little bit longer leash on Sabathia than he other wise would so he can use less members of the pen tomorrow so I wouldn’t be surprised to CC go 8 innings if it takes him around 115-120 pitches and it’s close late.
Clearly Girardi overmanaged here, besides not pulling the hot pitcher if Aceves does get out of it then who goes out for the next inning shaky Aceves or Chad Gaudin it just doesn’t make sense to keep pitching Hughes but pull Robertson, maybe the Hughes-Mariano trouble scared Girardi away from leaving in David?
Simply inexplicable. Someone needs to explain to Girardi that statistics tell you nothing until you have a reasonable sample size.
What statistics Mathis has no history with Aceves and Howie has only faced Robertson twice… it has to be something to do with a weakness in Kendrick and a strength he though in Aceves, nothing else makes sense in that situation, two at bats don’t make decisions.
If I recall correctly Kendrick hadn’t faced Aceves and was 1/2 against Robertson, hardly a large enough sample size to go on. But yeah, I’m befuddled. Also by the Damon/Hairston switch, but that’s a story for another day.
That 1/2 is with a strike out on Robertson part as well, just doesn’t make any sense!
The only thing I can think of is, by the way Girardi said it, I think he thought Aceves’ stuff matched-up better than D-Rob’s.
If you saw the post game, he said ‘match up’ not stats. Match up can mean the type of stuff Ace throws and what Mathis likes to swing at.
Yeah I already said I don’t think i has anything to do with stats but it has to do with a weakness in Kendrick/Mathis and a strength Joe sees in Aceves.
I will tell you that the Brett Gardner thrown out stealing on a pitch out will be the most over looked play in this game!! If he stays on first or actually steals second because they don’t call pitch out and Posada still homers it may never get to extra innings and the Yankees could be up 3-0 now, very good call by Scioscia to pitch out on a 0-1 count to get the speedy Gardner.
Yeah, or Posada could have grounded into a DP on the next pitch and the Angels would have won in regulation. It’s problematic to play the counterfactual game. I was stoked enough that the Yanks had tied the game to worry about Gardner getting thrown out.
No duh, you can’t say anything would have happened the same after that but Jesus Christ that’s not even what I’m talking about… I wasn’t talking about that play Being over looked because Gardner was going and I don’t think he should have I was saying it will get over looked but it should because it was a great play by Scioscia to call for the pitch out on a 0-1 pitch.. Very ballsy and it won’t get talked about much because of the rest of the game.
Well said.
Mike is one of my more favorite managers in all of baseball, he is a ballsy guy and his teams are ballsy… He doesn’t care if he ends the season on a squeeze bunt gone wrong that is who he is and if we beat his team we will truly be a World Series team!
Hard lost but really they are in good shape. Angels aren’t hitting and the Yanks won’t go forever with 0- risp. Also I do think Gardner needs to go earlier. He didn’t go and Cano hit into that DP then waited too long. Most managers won’t do a pitch out on the 1st pitch because they don’t want to put the hitter at the advantage.
You can’t go first pitch because Gardner has never even been on base with Jepsen on the hill and he throws 96-99 so if you go you better make sure you read his movement right! He should have waited another pitch or two Mike loves to call pitch outs and on 0-1 and 1-1 he is really likely to do it.
At the end of the day Girardi’s decision lost us the game but the failure of the offense to do anything but hit 4 solo shots put him in the position he was in to make that decision, they had some chances including 1st and 3rd with 1 out twice and Swisher strikes out once and has a short fly out on the other.
Was Girardi looking at the right page in that book?
It must have something in it about a weakness to offspeed pitches or something that Robertson wasn’t apt to do…
Girardi’s mistake, I think, was less in putting Aceves, and more in putting in everyone. Despite rumors, Ace has not “stunk” this post season and overall did more for us in the regular season Robertson, and arguably any reliever. However, even with Joba soiling himself on national TV, there’s no excuse for buring through your whole pen by the 11th inning.
What Joe has been doing has been working to this point. Maybe he’ll be more cautious now he’s been burned.
I’m also not blaming Ace. He’s seen little action in the last month, and this is a good hitting team. Pitching relief in extra innings on the road is a high risk, low reward job. Shit happens.
The real culprits here are 7, 8, 9 in the batting order. They looked pitiful with RiSP tonight. Again and again and again a base hitcould have broken the game open. Again and again and again they failed.
This team is where it is because EVERYONE contributed. Right now, ARod and Jeet and the pitchers have pulled most of the load. Posada, Damon and Matsui have contributed in spots. Tex is making up for a weak bat with blazing leather. Cano, Swish and Melk are doing nothing.
I would definately sit Swish or Melky tomorrow for Gardy.
It’s not a rumor we have been watching the series man and Aceves has gotten away with some mistakes and he has gotten out of some jams but he has pitched anything but great and he has been really shaky even when executing… in fact Aceves has been shaky since about a month before entering the playoffs, he just got worn down and wasn’t the same since late summer.
You can’t sit either one for Gardner because Kazmir is on the mound and Brett is weaker against Lefties than both of those two are…
Can he really look worse than Melky and Swisher have?
Yes he can go 0-4 without ever getting the ball out of the infield….
Melky is 8 for 20 (.400) in his career with 2 doubles and 2 RBI while Gardner is 1-6 with a lone single… Swisher also gets the edge over Gardner because of his power and ability to hit HRs on the road so you have to keep Gardner on the bench for this one. Not to mention you lose the ability to chose where you want him to pinch run and you have to turn to Guzzy to run instead. If Melky doesn’t hit in game 4 then let Gardner start game 5 against the right handed Lackey.
Addendum to above comment:
I never said Ace was doing great, but we needed 1 out, no one on. For reasons that I don’t know, JG felt Ace’s stuff matched up better. I am sure tomorrow the stat heads will shed more light on that, and convince me one way or another as to how bad the decision was.
This is not to say I absolve JG – this is a team loss, and he’s part of this team. But this is the way he’s managed throughout the post season, and while you can say that made this loss inevitable, in all fairness it has also won us 4 games. This is also not game 7, and there is no off day – one issue to juggle is whether to use few pitchers for a lot of outs, and burn them for tomorrow, or to use each pitcher a little so all or most hands are on deck if CC falls short.
Robertson had only faced two batters and got both of them out so the argument that he was saving Robertson is stupid and there are no stats to back up the decision he went with a gut feeling and it was wrong you don’t take out Robertson for Aceves there… period!
The way that I’ve been thinking about this game, that makes me feel a little better, is the 10th inning. That was amazing just go get out of that. I don’t know the numbers, but I bet lead-off doubles score more often than not.
bases loaded with one out and Torii Hunter and Vlad up to hit…
Kevin Long needs to work with Swisher on not swinging at breaking balls in the dirt and he needs to work with Cano on being more aggressive, he has laid off to many pitches! He is a good contact hitter who swings freely stop locking yourself up trying to work a walk and just be you…
The line ups numbers against Kazmir career…
Derek Jeter- 4-36… 1 HR, 4 RBI
Johnny Damon- 6-36.. 2B, 3B, 5 RBI, 6 BB
Mark Teixeira- 7-11… 3 RBI, 5 BB
Alex Rodriguez- 3-24… 0 HR, 0 2B, 0 3B, 0 RBI, 6 BB
Hideki Matsui- 5-28… 1 HR, 3 RBI
Jorge Posada- 11-25… 1 HR, 5 RBI
Nick Swisher- 5-27… 1 HR, 2 RBI
Robinson Cano- 4-26… 3 RBI
Melk Cabrera- 8-20… 2 2B, 2 RBI
A lot of experience but not a lot of success however all these numbers are in the regular season and this will be Scott’s first start against the Yankees in the post season so hopefully the Yankees can take advantage of having seen Kazmir a lot and exploit his weaknesses. Jeter and Alex are red ho so I expect both of them to do well and get hits, it’s encouraging to see Tex’s numbers against Kazmir in limited at bats so maybe he can bust out tomorrow and I see a good coming in for Melky tomorrow so hopefully we can get Kaz out early and take the lead and have Sabs hold on to it for us!
I liked that fact that Joe went with his gut in the 10th with Mo, we have seen time and time again managers hold back their closer until there was a “save situation”, thats baseball for you, you make the right choice one inning and the wrong choice the next inning, but hey we are still up 2-1 and we have our beast on the mound tonight. Do you think we will see Joba if the game is close?
I agree JG made the rigth call in the 10th – I still blame Joe Torre for the game 4 loss in Florida in ’03 WS when he had Weaver on the mound and Mo in the pen for the save that never materialized. I also agreed with his decision to limit mo to one inning (although he could have struck out just as easily as FC).