Joe Girardi blew another ALCS game last night by making the wrong moves at the wrong time. His first mistake was the move he didn’t make: after the Yankees scored 6 runs in the top half of the 7th inning to take a 2 run lead, he should have pulled Burnett. There’s no reason to put Burnett back out there after he’d been sitting in the dugout for 30 minutes letting his arm get cold, especially with the bullpen the Yankees have. Instead, Burnett goes back out there, immediately gets into trouble, and then Girardi decides to bring Joba in to clean it up, which he fails to do. I know we all like to watch Joba pitch, but we need to face the fact that he hasn’t been very good under pressure in the postseason. He would have been much better off if he could have started the inning with nobody on base.

Another mistake I think Girardi made was pinch running for ARod in the 9th with Guzman. I understand that Guzman is fast and Girardi wanted the possibility of tying the game with a double, but ARod isn’t exactly Hideki Matsui on the basepaths either. The guy can still run, and he’s been the majors longer and has better baserunning instincts that Guzman, who has just 20 stolen bases in the majors. So now we’ve got ARod out of the game, and Guzman on 1st. If Guzman is so fast, why doesn’t he steal here? We’re a couple of hits away from tying the game with him on 1st, and just 1 hit away from tying the game if he’s on 2nd. Fuentes is a lefty pitcher, but he doesn’t have a great move to first and he’s slow to the plate. I’d say Guzman’s success rate in that situation is around 80-85% given his speed, which is a chance worth taking. Having him sit at first just doesn’t make any sense. Is it worth removing ARod from the game on the off-chance the batter hits a double that can score Guzman from 1st? If the Yankees tie the game there they would have been much weaker in extra innings without ARod in the lineup or in the field.

Tags: joba, joe girardi, new york yankees, yankees