I cannot remember ever seeing as strange of an inning as I saw in last nights game. The Yankees headed into the inning with a 3-2 lead over the Minnesota Twins. While A.J. Burnett did not have his best stuff, he was battling. With a man on second and two out and Burnett having reached 100 pitches, with Joe Mauer coming to the plate Joe Girardi decided to go to Damaso Marte?
Damaso Marte? Damaso Marte? Are you kidding me Joe? Damaso Marte is on this team to do specifically this job. Get out the big left handed bats in key situations. Anyone who has watched the Yankees this season can tell you that Marte has been awful in these spots. Lefties are hitting .294 against Marte. Furthermore if you are familiar with Marte's pitch sequencing (which i assume Girardi is) Marte relies on expanded the zone specifically on the outside corner to left handed hitters. If you watched the game the strike zone was very tight last night specifically on the outside corner. So what should have Girardi done you might ask? Reward
Boone Logan who has been the hot hand and see what he could do in a big spot against two of the best left handed hitters in the league. Lefties are hitting .222 against him. This opinion is not hindsight on my part I actually picked up Boone Logan in one of my fantasy league's because I need holds and I figured with a lefty heavy line-up Girardi would do the smart thing and go to Logan. Marte obviously blew the lead as usual and left the Yankees trailing 4-3 going into the bottom of the 7th.
Which is where things got even more questionable. The Yankees managed to get runners on second and third with one out and
Mark Teixeira coming to the plate. With a base empty and the struggling Alex Rodriguez on deck I understand the move to walk him to try and set up a double-play. It makes sense if you don't have access to any statistics. However
Alex Rodriguez is 4 for 4 with one walk, one sacrifice fly, two home runs and 14 RBI in six plate appearances after Mark Teixeira has been intentionally walked to juice the bases in front of him. Now that was only half the strange move by Gardenhire who then brings in of all people
Matt Guerrier a pitcher Rodriguez was 4 for 6 with 3 HR and 4 RBI against coming into the at-bat. We all knew what was going to happen didn't we? Some how Gardenhire did not.
So now tell me why have the twins lost are 5-28 in the Bronx during the Gardenhire era? I usually like the guy, but the moves by both managers in the 7th inning are simply idiotic.
