Girardi lives, dies with every playoff decision
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- If the Yankees polish off the Angels in Game 6 on what is predicted to be a very rainy Saturday night in the Bronx, manager Joe Girardi's blown-radiator Game 5 moves will be forgotten -- along with his even-more-curious Game 3 moves -- until the next time.
If the Yankees lose Game 6 but win Game 7, there will be a residual effect. Not simply because ace CC Sabathia would not be able to start Game 1 of the World Series, but because he also would only be able to make two World Series starts. Unlike in this AL Championship Series, he would not be in position to start three of the seven games.
If the Yankees lose Game 6 and then stumble along and lose Game 7, blowing a 3-to-1 ALCS lead ... expect to see Girardi roasting in the Statue of Liberty's torch by sunrise Monday morning.
Carving up managers has become as much a part of October as carving up pumpkins and overdosing on Snickers bars. Baseball fans and We in the Media can't get enough of it. And if rain postpones Saturday's game and gives us even more free time, we'll all be arguing over the way Girardi managed his Saturday morning breakfast.
Can you believe it, he went with the oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar!
Stupid move! The bacon-and-mushroom omelet was warm, ready to go and far more delicious!
Oh my God ... coffee with cream and sugar! Hasn't he heard of Splenda? That matchup was horrible!
Angels manager Mike Scioscia heard it, too, following his team's dramatic 7-6 survival victory. The key difference being, on this night, his team won. The only truism for managers in this digital age of 24 different camera angles and 240 computer reports detailing every conceivable matchup is this:
Win, and all those key strategic moves -- even the dumb ones -- become instantly defensible. Lose, and even the moves you had six excellent reasons for making will still be ripped. Because, duh, they didn't add up to a win.
"I don't think the word 'genius' has ever been used in a sentence with me," Scioscia cracked late Thursday night before Friday morning's workout and, later, the team charter back to New York. "But you've got to make moves and live with them."
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Series: Yankees 3, Angels 2 Doyel: New York has set up problem Verducci: Game 6 critical for Yanks' rotation Heyman: Ex-Indians making playoff waves |
What makes it worse for Girardi and Co. as the series shifts east is that, as the Yankees take a few more strides deeper into the unknown, the nightmare of 2004 is much fresher in the memory than the club's most recent World Series title. Because that was way back in 2000.
Though there is as much chance of any of the Yankees players themselves admitting to such thoughts over the next 24 hours as there is that the Angels will sign Dave Roberts in time for Game 6 ... you'd better believe the haunting memory of '04 is edging closer around the fringes of this series.
A New York Daily News online poll Friday entitled "Shades of '04" asked readers whether they're worried the Yanks could be in for a repeat of their 2004 ALCS collapse to Boston. The choices for respondents:
• "Yes, if Joe Saunders has a bloody sock Saturday, we're done."
• "No, we got CC for Game 7 if needed."
• "There was an ALCS in 2004?"
"Anytime you have a chance to close out a series and you don't win, no matter what the score is, it's a missed opportunity," Girardi said after the Yankees coughed up a 6-4 seventh-inning lead in Game 5. "But we get a chance to go to our ballpark, where we've played extremely well.
"We've had a lot of come-from-behind wins there. So, yeah, it's a missed opportunity. But we still have another game on Saturday."
Not only are the Yankees 4-0 this postseason in their billion-dollar new home, their 57-24 record in Yankee Stadium was the best home mark in all of baseball in 2009.
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| '... you just hope you can control yourself. Make your pitches,' Andy Pettitte says. (Getty Images) |
Scioscia talked the other day of the importance of his team scoring early runs and, in Game 5, they did that against A.J. Burnett. Figgins drew a leadoff walk, Abreu followed with a double, and four of Burnett's first six strikes were whacked for hits en route to a four-run Angels' first inning.
Pettitte in Game 3 pitched into the seventh inning, holding the Angels to three runs and seven hits.
"I've made too many starts in the postseason and been in this situation so many times," Pettitte said. "I've been there and done that.
"All that experience is not going to help me when I go out in the first inning and help my pitches be where they need to be. Hopefully, it's just there. Hopefully, I get everything going and give this team a quality start, a good start, and give us a chance to win that ballgame."
Not only is it important not to give the Angels the idea that they can win early, but Pettitte's start also is key because the Yankees have hit a wall with set-up men Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes.
Hughes' 1-2 fastball that Vladimir Guerrero whacked for a game-tying single in the seventh inning Thursday was an awful choice. Ahead in the count with a 6-5 lead, two out, runners at the corners and one of the game's most notorious free swingers at the plate, Hughes should have come nowhere near the strike zone with that pitch. He probably could have gotten Guerrero to chase a breaking pitch away.
"He's still making pitches," Girardi said. "He got to the counts that he wanted to and wasn't able to put Vlad Guerrero away.
"He missed his spot. He's been doing it for us all year. We believe that he's going to get it done. This is the time of year that everything gets a little bit tougher, but we like his stuff and we believe he'll get it done."
Tough to tell in such a small sample size how big of a crisis in confidence Hughes (0-1, 5.79 ERA in six postseason games) and Chamberlain (3.38 ERA) are facing. But the frequency with which Girardi has spun the reliever carousel (Chamberlain was hooked after facing only three batters in Game 5) has led to serious -- and legitimate -- questions about his bullpen management.
As Scioscia said, this time of year, managers must make moves and live with them. And so it is with Girardi, who ripped through seven relievers after removing Pettitte in Game 3 and then, with a fresh bullpen following Wednesday's off day, seemed indecisive with the roles of Hughes and Chamberlain.
"We've been able to get back off the carpet, or the mat, or whatever you want to say, and come back and win a game," he said. "We had a tough loss on Monday. Came out and played a great game on Tuesday. Tough loss [in Game 5], and we'll see what happens on Saturday."
As for Pettitte, who has worked so many of these postseason games that he pitched to Girardi in the clinching game of the 1998 World Series, he expects the usual loony tunes behavior from fans who can't believe the Yankees haven't won a Fall Classic in almost a decade.
"You know there's going to be a lot of energy in the ballpark," Pettitte said. "Like I said, you just hope you can control yourself. Make your pitches. Make quality pitches throughout the game.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to wrap this thing up on Saturday."
