Tigers vs. Yankees: Joe Girardi's Quick Trigger Destroys Magical Season

Sure you can blame the New York Yankees' lack of offense for their 3-2 Game 5 loss in the ALDS against the Detroit Tigers, but the real reason the Yankees lost was manager Joe Girardi.

Starter Ivan Nova gave up back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches in the first inning then proceeded to settle down and collect the next five outs.

He left the game with what was later called a stiff forearm, but he sure seemed to be fine.

Was this Girardi’s way of ducking the blame on having such a short string? 

After only 31 pitches, Nova was gone and Phil Hughes was in. A starter during the regular season, Hughes breezed through four more outs before giving up a single. Girardi panicked and went into the bullpen again; this time it was Boone Logan.

It took him a grand total of seven pitches to get out of the “jam” of having a runner on base and we were off to the fifth inning with the score still 2-0. 

While the Yankees were batting in the bottom of the fourth, the dumbest move of all was made.

CC Sabathia, who had thrown over 100 pitches on Monday, began to warm up. The crowd was amped, but they shouldn’t have been.

By bringing in Sabathia on in relief for the first time in his career, Joe Girardi sent a message loud and clear to the rest of the bullpen that he had absolutely no faith in them.

It was the ultimate panic move—and guess what happened?

Sabathia allowed Austin Jackson, who was 1-for-13 in the series, to bloop a double to left before Victor Martinez a few batters later made the score 3-0.

The damage was done.

The Yanks mustered two runs, but couldn’t overcome that one extra run. It was the difference in the game and now fans are wondering why they couldn’t have stuck with Hughes longer, or even Logan.

In all, the Yankees used seven different pitchers. Considering this wasn’t a blowout by any stretch, the consistent calls to the bullpen were not necessary. Giradi tried to put his stamp on this game and he failed miserably.

Giradi took a page out of Tony La Russa’s book of over-manging, and it ended up costing his team a chance to advance.

Sure people will be harping on the shortcomings of A-Rod and the rest of the offense in the coming days, but it’s their manager that deserves the most blame for throwing his bullpen under the bus and overworking his horse (who may have played his last game in pinstripes).

Enjoy dealing with that Yankee fans.