Game 50 - Yanks Rally All For Naught

The Yanks rallied from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game at 4-all, only to lose it late due to the inability to execute and questionable bullpen choices by Joe Girardi.  For most of the game, the Yanks were being haunted by Carl "American Idle" Pavano, who robbed the Yanks of nearly $40M the past 4 years due to his numerous, too many to count, trips to the DL.  He shut down the Yanks offense, which has been clicking on all cylinders lately, through 5 innings.  

Down 4-0 going into the top of the 6th, Mark Teixeira finally put the team on the board with a 2-run swat.  This came after Derek Jeter was wrongly called out on a close play at first and Johnny Damon singled.  The Yanks still trailed 4-2 going into the 8th.  Jorge Posada, who was given the day off following a night game, pinch hit and struck out.  Jeter singled, knocking Pavano out of the game, as Indians manager, Eric Wedge decided to go with matchups.  As usual, this failed miserably.  Damon followed with a double and Tex brought both runners in with another double to tie the game.  ARod and the clutchless Robinson Cano both stranded Tex to end the inning.  

In the meantime, Chien-Ming Wang, who relieved Yankee starter, Phil Hughes, kept the Yanks in the game with 3 shutout innings and 3 Ks.  He lowered his ERA four whole runs down to 16.07.  Hughes wasn't as sharp as his last start, but he was effective and kept the Yanks in the game.  He gave up 4 runs in 5 innings while striking out 6.  The 3rd inning was his downfall, when he gave up 3 runs - 2 coming from a bloop single and a sac fly.  His 4th run wasn't all his fault, with Brett Gardner misplaying a fly ball into a leadoff double that came around to score on another sac fly.  

Going into the top of the 9th, all tied up, Hideki Matsui led off with a walk against Indians closer, Kerry Wood.  Girardi had Nick Swisher bunt over pinch runner, Ramiro Pena, to 2nd.  Brett Gardner then followed with an infield single, giving the Bombers runners on 1st and 3rd, 1 out.  Posada, who stayed in the game after pinch hitting, represented the Yanks best chance to put them up by 1 and give the great Mariano Rivera a save opportunity.  Mo never got the chance.  For reasons unknown at the time, Brett Gardner inexplicably never took a chance at swiping second to stay out of a potential double play with the slow-footed Posada at the plate.  Of course, Posada couldn't do what the Indians were able to do all game - hit a sacrifice fly.  He banged into the 4-6-3 double play to kill the rally.  

In the bottom of the 9th, for some strange reason, Girardi opted to go with Phil Coke.  Bad choice.  Coke promptly walked rookie, Trevor Crowe, who came into the game hitting .171 with an OBP of .237.  After a sacrifice bunt, Robertson relieved Coke, finally stepping into a game at a big moment.  Robertson failed, walking Ben Francisco and giving up the game winning single to Jhonny Peralta on a 3-1 count.  In the meantime, the Yanks best reliever, Mo, never came in.

During the post-game press conference, it was discovered that Gardner was given the steal sign and just failed to execute against Kerry Wood, a righty with a slow move to the plate.  If he's not going to utilize his greatest asset, his speed, what is he doing?  Wang was removed after 3 scoreless innings because he may still be used to spot start for Andy Pettitte, who is nursing a stiff lower back.  The question of why Mo never came in was never answered (maybe it wasn't asked?), but most, if not all, managers stick to the book of not using their closer on the road in a tie game.  Personally, I think it's a bunk call by teams - the team can't use the closer when they lose, so what are you saving him for?

Despite Gardner's gaffe (or gaffes counting his defensive lapse) and Girardi's management of his relievers, Posada is still the man to finger this loss on.  He literally took the day off, striking out and hitting into a double play in his 2 plate appearances.  I don't have any stats in front of me, but to watch this team day-in and day-out the last couple of years, it appears to me they struggle mightily in being able to hit a simple sacrifice fly and it continues to haunt them in 1-run ball games.

Other notes:  Alert!  Alert!  There was a David Ortiz sighting today.  He went 1-5 with a double.  He's still blistering the cover off the ball at a .185 clip.  My preseason pick for Cy Young, Jon Lester, finally looked sharp, struck out 12 Blue Jays in 6 innings.  He's only 4-5 this season with an ERA of 5.65.  I picked him for the this year's Cy and Big Nugget Youkilis for the MVP award.  Lester has been less than stellar and Youkilis was DL'd earlier this season.  Perhaps I should continue to "hex" the Sox players every year with my picks.

Yankees Record:  29-21

Blown Games:  4