The Yankees had game 3 in the bag and were well on their way to a 3-0 series lead over the Angels, but then manager Joe Girardi decided to mix things up. Girardi’s attempt to appear like a competent manager backfired over and over again as the Angels came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees 5-4 on Monday night.

It almost felt like Girardi was starved for attention last night. At any tense moment in the game, like Vladimir Guerrero stepping up to the plate as the tying run, Girardi had to come out to the mound to talk to his pitchers — or to just be seen on TV, I’m not really sure. The pitcher at that moment was Andy Pettitte, a veteran who doesn’t need Joe Girardi, a former teammate, to tell him Vladdy is a good hitter. That break in the rhythm didn’t help the Yankees, as Pettitte dished up a pitch that caught a little too much of the plate and Guerrero crushed it for the tying home run.

With the game tied, Girardi’s moves became even more bizarre. He ended up using nearly all of the Yankees bullpen during the 11 inning game, including Joba, Hughes, Mo, Coke, Marte, Robertson and Aceves, the eventual loser. He put Brett Gardner in to run for Hideki Matsui at one point, only to have Jerry Hairston, Jr. bat for Gardner when his spot came up in the lineup again. When the Angels got the potential winning run to 3rd base in the bottom of the 10th, Girardi put Hairston Jr. in center field, taking out Johnny Damon and his notoriously weak arm. That seemed to make sense, but it also meant that the Yankees lost the DH spot because that’s where Hairston had been. Mariano Rivera got out of the inning (masterfully as always, of course), but he was due up 3rd in the top of the 11th. The Yankees’ first two batters went down in order, and most managers probably would have sent Rivera up to the plate with 2 outs and nobody on. It’s not like a pinch hitter is likely to do much damage in that scenario anyway, and the Yankees needed Rivera to pitch the bottom half of the inning. Instead, Girardi pinch hit for Rivera with Francisco Cervelli, a decent average hitter with little power (1 HR on the season in 94 AB) who hadn’t had a plate appearance in 2 weeks. He struck out quickly, something Rivera probably could have done just as well.

With Rivera now out of the game, Girardi put right-handed David Robertson on the mound. He recorded the first two outs in the bottom of the 11th in order and the game seemed like it was headed for the 12th. Instead, Girardi decided to pull Robertson and put in Alfredo Aceves, another right handed pitcher who actually had a worse history against the hitter coming to the plate, Howie Kendrick. Kendrick promptly singled, and Jeff Mathis smoked a double into the left-center field gap to drive in the winning run. I still have no idea why Girardi took out Robertson, who seemed to be in a groove, in favor of Aceves. For that matter, I don’t know why he didn’t just give up on scoring in the top half of the 11th and leave Rivera in the game. He seemed to be shaking things up just for the sake of shaking things up.

I’ve only got one more note to make about the managing in Monday’s game. As I wrote above, Brett Gardner pinch ran for Matsui late in the game. It was obvious he was going to steal at some point during Posada’s at bat. Angels manager Mike Scioscia predicted which pitch it would be on and called for a pitch out. He guessed right, and Gardner was caught stealing. Posada went on to homer in the at bat, tying the game but also leaving some to wonder what might have been if Gardner was still on base. It may have just been bad luck on Girardi’s part, but Scioscia certainly looked like the better manager there.

Tags: alcs, angels, joe girardi, manager, mike scioscia, new york yankees