Yanks’ manager owns his mistakes as he should
THE DAY didn’t play to Joe Girardi’s strengths. He usually performs better in a uniform than in a golf shirt and jeans, looks more comfortable on a field flanked by coaches and players than in a press-conference room populated by reporters. Then again, the Yankees manager found himself in this stressful situation Saturday afternoon thanks to uncharacteristically gross incompetence on the field. So maybe it made sense, in a perverse way, Girardi succeeded where he often struggles. He didn’t fan the flames of Chisen-Hell. In a high-stakes question-and-answer session, Girardi did what he could to put the worst managing night of his career behind him and shift the focus toward Game 3 of American League Division Series on Sunday night, when the Yankees — down 2-0 in the best-of-five format — will try to keep their season going at Yankee Stadium. Though Girardi’s words don’t wipe the night from his legacy or the team’s history, they should at least dial down the current volume on it from an 11 on the “This Is Spinal Tap” scale to, say, an 8. “I screwed up,” an emotional Girardi said. “And it’s hard. It’s a hard day for me. But I’ve got to move forward, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.” He added: “Now I wish I would have challenged it.” “It” naturally is the faulty call by home-plate umpire Dan Iassogna on Chad Green’s 1-2 fastball to pinch hitter Lonnie Chisenhall, which replays show hit the knob of Chisenhall’s bat and went into Gary Sanchez’s glove for strike three. Iassogna ruled that the ball hit Chisenhall. The Yankees, best in the business at operating MLB’s replay-challenge system, let the play go without using one of their two challenges. The Indians’ next batter, Francisco Lindor, ripped a grand slam, cutting the Yankees’ lead to 8-7 and sparking Cleveland to an eventual 9-8 victory in 13 innings. “Does it change the complexion of the game? Yeah, it sure could have,” Girardi said. “Do we know that for sure? No. But I’ve always taken re- sponsibilities for losses, and I take them hard, too.”
It absolutely changed the complexion of the game. As the Yankees’ Game 2 starter, CC Sabathia, said late Friday night: “That kind of turned the game.” So Girardi didn’t execute a perfect news conference, which would have been a first for him. He also touted “the formula” on which he relied that prompted him to remove Sabathia for Green then to stick with Green against Lindor — and that will heighten the criticism of him, as illustrated by The Post’s Joel Sherman, that he relies too heavily on numbers and precedents and doesn’t read each situation as it comes.
Pitching decisions cross each manager’s desk repeatedly, though, and no manager is immune to those shoulda/coulda/wouldas. The failure to call for a replay review qualifies as something else altogether. It’s an inexcusable system breakdown. And Girardi wholly fell on his sword regarding this primary issue.
“I take full responsibility,” he said, and referring to coaching assistant Brett Weber, who makes the recommendations on challenging or not challenging, Girardi added: “It’s not Brett’s fault. It’s my fault.”
He couldn’t leave this lingering. He had to let his team and the public know that the buck stopped with him.
Indians manager Terry Francona, no stranger to being the object of passionate fan bases’ derision, said of these situations: “You do your homework, and you’re prepared, and you make your decisions. And then … after the game, you have to answer for it, which you’re supposed to. If you don’t have an answer, shame on you.
“And then you’re confident enough in what you’re doing and you move on. You can’t rush to wake up to see how you’re being perceived because it’s just not helpful.”
The playoffs can be different. They can give you a travel day like this one, when you must relive and own your mistake in the hopes of diminishing it. Girardi did that Saturday. It doesn’t grant him a permanent escape from his ghastly error. In the short term, however, it gives him and his team more brain space to focus on the highly challenging task ahead of them.