New York Baseball: Girardi Manages Yanks to Series Loss

With the Yankees trailing rival Boston 7-5 in the top of the eighth, Jose Molina singled to left with no outs.  Manager Joe Girardi then pinch ran for the slow Molina with Wilson Betemit, seemingly in hopes of using Betemit's speed to draw New York within one run.

Melky Cabrera, pinch hitting for Alberto Gonzalez, then singled to right, moving Betemit to second and setting up a perfect bunt situation.  With the quick Johnny Damon due up next, all the Yanks had to do was lay down a bunt and they would have the tying runs in scoring position.  Even if Robinson Cano or Bobby Abreu couldn't follow with a single, all Cano really had to do was hit a ground ball to the right side to bring the deficit to just one with another inning to play.

But despite the fact that Damon is only hitting .190 and the fact that bunting has been very beneficial for the Yanks so far this season, Girardi chose to let Damon swing away, and of course the outfielder hit into a double play, ending New York's hopes for a series win.

But the confusing managerial decisions don't end there.  Because Giardi pinch ran for his catcher Molina (apparently for no reason), DH Jorge Posada, who cannot throw a baseball right now due to a sore arm, was forced to move behind the plate.  So now the Yankees not only had a catcher who couldn't throw out base runners, but they had also lost their designated hitter, meaning their pitchers would be forced to bat.  And because of all the moves Girardi made in the top of the eighth, the Yankees were only left with Morgan Ensberg and an injured Derek Jeter on the bench to pinch hit for the pitcher if his spot was to come up.

Clearly, Girardi didn't think the Yankees had a chance to come back in the ninth and he made sure of that by bringing in Kyle Farnsworth to pitch the bottom of the eighth even though Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera hadn't pitched in three days.  But obviously they're not allowed to pitch in games the Yankees are losing.

So what happened?  Farnsworth, whose ERA is now 5.68, gave up a lead-off single to the speedy Coco Crisp, who immediately stole second because the Yankees were fielding the equivalent of myself behind home plate.  The Red Sox continued to play small ball, moving Crisp to third and then scoring him on consecutive fly balls. What a novel concept.  Pedroia also singled off the worthless Farnsworth and of course stole second without a throw.

Now down three, the Yankees barely even tried to come back in the top of ninth, going down in order and losing the game 8 to 5.  It was one of the worst jobs of managing I have ever seen and that's saying a lot because I've watched about 1,500 Torre-managed games over the past 12 years.

I haven't graded the Yankees since their loss to the Royals on Wednesday, so here are their cumulative grades for the last four games (a win Thursday over KC, Wang's masterful performance on Friday versus Boston, and the two losses to the Red Sox over the weekend).

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