Say It Aint So (Joe)

Yankees 4 8 0
Angels 5 13 0

WP: Bulger
LP: Aceves (really should go to Girardi)

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Howie Kendrick. He was 3-5 with 3 runs, including the game winner. He killed the Yankees today.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Jeff Mathis's game winning double off Aceves. No reason any other play should go up here.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: Here it is. The reason you probably came to this site, to see us vent about this decision. Joe Girardi taking David Robertson out of the game for Alfredo Aceves. I was questioning it the minute he did it, and Girardi should take all the blame in this loss. Robertson easily got the first two batters out, but for some reason Girardi wants to take him out for Aceves to face Kendrick. Both pitchers are righties, and Kendrick is a righty so there is no matchup there. I don't know why Girardi would rather have a pitcher who relies on contact to get the final out of the inning than a power pitcher like Robertson. This move baffles me.

It was also not the only move that baffled me. Replacing Damaso Marte with Phil Coke seemed like a waste of a move. I had been saying it to myself for a while, that Girardi's overmanaging is going to cost us a game, and today it did. His overmanaging had been driving me crazy this whole postseason, but they kept winning, so you couldn't complain. But it's ok, everyone calm down. We play tommorow, we have CC going, we're up 2-1. No reason to panic.


GAME NOTES:

• All the Yankees runs came on solo home runs. They need to start hitting with RISP so they can just put away the teams they're facing.
• Mike Scioscia learned his lesson from Game 2 by intentionally walking A-Rod in the top of the 9th with Fuentes pitching. The move paid off as Hairston struck out next.
• Girardi pulled Pettitte after 95 pitches. Could he have kept going? Maybe. Expect a lot of criticism of Girardi's bullpen use by the media tommorow.
• Pettitte went 6.1 innings giving up 3 runs. That has been the worst start by a Yankee this postseason. Not bad, if they keep it up, they'll be in a good situation.

Tommorow

CC Sabathia goes up against Scott Kazmir tommorow. Sabathia is pitching on 3-days rest for the first time this year and first time in the playoffs. Kazmir has usually faired well against the Yankees. Should be a good one. The game starts at 7:57 ET on FOX.

See Ya!