‘I SCREWED UP,’ SEZ JOE Skipper admits he whiffed on foul-tip challenge
IT CAME a day late, but, in a rare occurrence, Joe Girardi actually admitted he made a mistake.
“I screwed up,” Girardi said Saturday, a day after his massive managerial blunder cost the Yankees in a stunning 9-8, 13-inning loss to the Indians in Game 2 of the ALDS at Progressive Field.
With two on, two outs and the Bombers ahead 8-3 in the sixth, Girardi failed to challenge what appeared to be a strike-three foul tip from Lonnie Chisenhall on an 0-2 fastball from Chad Green. It looked like the ball deflected off the knob of Chisenhall’s bat and into Gary Sanchez’s glove, but it was ruled a hit-by-pitch. Chisenhall didn’t react as hitters usually do when they are struck.
Sanchez even looked toward the dugout, indicating he felt strongly that his manager should challenge. After the game, the 24-year-old catcher said he heard something, and while he wasn’t sure that it hit the bat, he was indeed sure it didn’t hit Chisenhall.
“He never reacted,” Sanchez said through an interpreter. “He didn’t move.”
The complexion of the game changed a batter later, as Francisco Lindor launched a grand slam on a 1-0 hanging backdoor breaking ball by Green that brought the Tribe within 8-7. Jay Bruce homered off David Robertson to tie the game leading off the eighth, and Yan Gomes won it with a walk-off RBI single against Dellin Betances in the 13th.
“I think you can second-guess yourself,” Girardi said. “But here’s the process that I go through. (Video replay guru) Brett Weber has been so good at what he does that when he tells me something’s not inconclusive, I believe him, because he’s so good. “Now, knowing that I had two challenges, in hindsight, yeah, I wish I would’ve challenged it. But he never got that video clip with that angle, that super-slow mo. And, yeah, I should’ve challenged it, now that I think about it.” It was stunning at the time that Girardi, as meticulous as it gets, always doing charts and turning to a binder filled with statistics, didn’t challenge. After the game, he said it was because he didn’t want to mess up Green’s rhythm. Rightful criticism followed. “There are a lot of players that tell you to challenge things at
times,” Girardi said when asked about Sanchez. “That’s the one thing we don’t’ get caught up in, when a player tells you to challenge something, because it’s not always the case. And Brett has the video of it and that’s what we go by.”
Girardi said there wasn’t an issue of trust between he and Sanchez. “No, no, no. I mean, how many times have you seen a player say, check, check, check, and it ends up being the call that they called?
“Again, I screwed up. And it’s hard. It’s a hard day for me. But I have to move forward and we’ll be ready for (Sunday).”
Weber has led the majors with a 75 percent overturn rate.
“I know he feels bad, too,” Girardi said. “You know, we really care. Again, I take full responsibility. It’s not Brett’s fault. It’s my fault.”
Asked about his challenge strategy, Girardi said, “Very seldom have I ever wasted a challenge when it wasn’t conclusive. That’s just what I’ve done. Maybe that’s the wrong way. But that’s the way I’ve been. And we’ve been successful with our challenge system.”
Girardi said he checked the temperature of his players following the heartbreaking defeat.
“We’ve had each other’s backs all year long,” the manager said. “We’ll continue to have that and we’ll try to go out and play hard (Sunday) and go out and try to win one game.”
Asked if this particular blunder will stick with him, Girardi responded: “Let’s just see what happens (Sunday) and as we move forward. That will determine the severity of it.”