Girardi To Yanks: "We Stunk"

From George A. King III:

After watching the Yankees waste multiple scoring chances, the Pirates spank his pitchers and the fielders not make plays, manager Joe Girardi told his players what he thought of last night's debacle.

Following a 12-5 drubbing that was witnessed by 38,867 at PNC Park, Girardi stopped in the clubhouse and delivered the same message he would give to the media shortly afterward.

"We stunk," Girardi told his putrid players.

Nobody argued.

Girardi has been on the job for three months and might be the most positive of the 30 big-league managers. Last night, however, he put the hosannas on hold.

"We had a lot of chances and didn't take advantage of them and that's what kills you," Girardi said of his lineup that continued a disappointing trend of not hitting in the clutch by going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Asked what area irked him the most, Girardi didn't hesitate.

"The whole game bothered me, we stunk, we stunk," Girardi said. "We keep putting [runners] out there. We have to turn it around because we are missing opportunities. We had a lot of opportunities. The defense didn't help us, the pitching didn't help us and the runners in scoring position ..."

I'd have been very disappointed if Joe Girardi had let this game go as just another loss, and didn't show any frustrations. I've always been a fan of a manager showing that he's not happy with the way his team is performing, and yesterday was a as good of a day as any so for Joe to tell the team how bad they looked.

This team needs to stop playing like this immediately. They have been playing good baseball since about the time A-Rod came off the DL and they cannot afford to stop now. Nobody has run away with either AL East or the Wild Card, and with with the the Rays and Red Sox - the two leaders in those races - coming up on the schedule, it's very important that this team gets it act together.