HOT YANKEES IN MELTDOWN
Streak ends at 5 as Joe gets penned in
JOE GIR A R DI’S greatest strength as Yankees manager has been his handling of the bullpen. Until Thursday night, anyway. With Rafael Soriano unavailable due to his recent heavy workload, Girardi tried to
m i x- a nd - match his way through the ninth inning rather than hand the ball to Dave Robertson, a move that came back to bite the Yankees in their 4-3 loss to the White Sox that ended a five-game winning streak.
After being inserted into the game with the tying runs at the corners and nobody out, Robertson gave up a go-ahead threerun home run by Dayan Viciedo, silencing the crowd of 44,041 in the process.
“We’ve only used him once back-to-back and he has been hurt,” Girardi explained when asked why he didn’t start the ninth with Robertson. “I’m going to be careful. His velocity has been not as consistent as it was before he did get hurt, so I’m watching him closely.”
Girardi nearly got away with his mix-and-match strategy, but a throwing error gave the White Sox new life and thrust Robertson into a sticky situation.
Soriano had pitched four times in the last five days, so Girardi decided to use Cody Eppley — who had recorded the final out of the eighth — to start the ninth. Eppley gave up a leadoff single by Alex Rios, bringing Girardi out for a pitching change.
In came Clay Rapada, who got A.J. Pierzynski to hit a comebacker for a potential double play. Rapada fired wide of second base, his errant throw sailing into center field to put runners at the corners with nobody out.
“I did my job as a pitcher; I just didn’t do my job as a fielder,” Rapada said. “When you get burned by a pitch, it just happens. But fundamentals, that’s just, fundamentals are the game. When you don’t do them, you put your team in bad situations, and this is what happens.”
Girardi turned to Robertson, whom he had planned to bring in even if Rapada had turned a clean double play. Robertson was hoping to pull off one of his classic Houdini acts, but Viciedo launched his 1-0 fastball into the left-field seats, putting the White Sox ahead by a run.
“It’s tough. It stinks, you know?” Robertson said. “We had the game right there and a
couple of things didn’t go our way. I made one bad pitch and they made me pay for it.”
The ninth-inning meltdown wiped out what had been a stellar night for the Yankees, who got 71⁄ innings of one-run ball from Ivan Nova and huge outs from Boone Logan and Eppley in the eighth.
Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano each hit RBI doubles in the fifth to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead, then Mark Teixeira tacked on a run in the eighth with his 13th home run of the season.
Girardi defended his decision not to start the inning with Robertson, citing the error as the key to the unfortunate frame.
“We give up a hit, we get a double play ball; I’m bringing him in with two outs,” Girardi said.
“That’s a tough way to lose a game, but it’s a physical error. It’s going to happen. You have to just put it behind you and move on.”
After Girardi’s press conference broke up, a reporter approached him to ask him another question about the decision,
3 causing Girardi to snap.
“Look, you can second-guess me all you want,” Girardi said. “I got a double-play ball.”
While Girardi is correct, the fact that he was hesitant to use Robertson for a full inning in a back-to-back situation remains curious.
Robertson (0-2) missed five weeks with a left oblique strain, but he has appeared in f ive games since returning on June 15 and insists he’s 100% healthy. He went back-to-back against the Mets last weekend, saying he felt better in his second outing than the first.
The mild-mannered Robertson didn’t directly second-guess Girardi, but he was clearly disappointed that he didn’t get the ball to start the ninth.
“If it’s up to me, if it’s my choice, I would prefer it,” Rober tson said, adding that he thought he would start the inning when the Yankees came out of the eighth with a lead. “I’ve been in situations before just like that and I’ve gotten out of them. Tonight just wasn’t one of those nights.”