New York-Minnesota: Yankees Blow Three Leads in Loss to Twins

Andy Pettitte blew leads of 2-0, 4-2, and 5-4, the Yankees offense left ten runners on base, and Kyle Farnsworth was Kyle Farnsworth, as New York fell to Minnesota 6-5 Monday night.

The Yanks had a number of opportunities to blow this game open against the Twins' starter Livan Hernandez, but New York went three for 16 with runners in scoring position, and scored only three of six times when they had a runner at third with less than two outs.

But despite the fact that the two main reasons the Yankees lost Monday were Pettitte and a lack of clutch hitting, a lot of people will incorrectly blame Joba Chamberlain's move from the pen to the rotation for this defeat.

First of all, Joe Girardi could have stuck with Pettitte, who had only thrown 94 pitches, to pitch the eighth, and if he got into trouble, he could've brought in Mariano Rivera, who many tell me is the greatest reliever of all time, to get a four or five-out save.

But the main point is that Kyle Farnsworth should not be pitching late in close games. He is now 0-2 with a 4.44 ERA and a terrible 1.56 WHIP. Over the past three seasons in New York, Farnsworth-less has shown a complete inability to get people out in pressure situations.

The guy who should be pitching the eighth in Joba's absence is Edwar Ramirez.  He's only given up one run in 16 innings of work this year, earning a microscopic 0.56 ERA and an equally impressive 1.06 WHIP.

Even Chris Britton (1.50 ERA, 0.83 WHIP) and Jose Veras (3.86 ERA, 0.94 WHIP) would be better options than Farnsworth.

Yet, despite the fact that Farnsworth is a horrible pitcher, this is the first time his awfulness has contributed to a Yankee loss in the 11 games since May 21, when it was announced that Chamberlain would be transitioning to the starting rotation.

I'll take one loss every 11 games in exchange for the one-and-a-half extra wins Joba will get every 11 games as he replaces Ian Kennedy in the rotation.