At least they admit their failures

Here's what the three goats of yesterday's game had to say about their performances via Mark Feinsand:

Joba:

"They have a right to (boo)," Chamberlain said. "They spend their hard-earned money and I didn't do my job. I made terrible pitches. That one is on me, nobody else. We don't have to fight back if I do my job."

Thames:

"I was coming in and I just took my eye off the ball," Thames said. "I looked at Robbie, but I called him off, and that has to be caught. I'm a major-league player and I have to catch that ball. It cost the team the win and it sucks. There's no excuses at all."

Can't argue with that.

Mariano had a little different take because he felt he actually struck out Jeremy Hermida on the 1-2 pitch, but also admitted he could have still gotten him out on the next pitch:

"Yeah, it was there," Rivera said. "The umpire was a little tight. You can do nothing about it. It happens."

...

"I had a chance to still do my job," Rivera said. "Still get that guy out and nothing would have happened. It's just part of the game."

Here's the pitch in question:

After watching a replay of the inning, looking at where MLB Gameday had the pitch, and this picture above, it appears that the pitch was in fact off the plate away. There are umps that would give Mariano that call and Cervelli did a good job at framing the pitch, but Mo really doesn't have an argument here. I'd defend him more if he was blaming Thames instead of the umpires.

(hat-tip to Pinstripe Alley)