Grading the New York Yankees: Girardi Manages to Lose Another One

These are the season batting averages and the career batting averages against lefty Scott Kazmir for three left-handed hitters on the Yankees entering Thursday’s game versus the Tampa Bay Rays.

Hitter                           2008 Avg.       Avg. v. Kazmir

Hideki Matsui             .317                             .200

Bobby Abreu              .286                             .222

Jason Giambi               .188                             .154

Guess which one of these three lefties got the start against Kazmir Thursday?  Yup, Jason Giambi.  In fact, not only did the Giamzero start, but he hit cleanup.  Cleanup!  That made for the formidable 4-5-6 of Giambi (.188 avg), Shelley Duncan (.188 avg.) and Morgan Ensberg (.224 avg.).  They all bat ahead of Robinson Cano (.350 avg. in May) and Alberto Gonzalez (.290 avg.).  And you wonder why the Yankees have scored just six runs in the last four games.

It’s really getting to the point where nothing Girardi does makes sense.  When two of your best hitters are on the DL (Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada), you just cannot keep two more of your best hitters (Hideki Matsui and Bobby Abreu) out of the starting lineup.  Please, someone explain that to me.  I beg you.  I’m really losing it here.

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