los angeles angels of anaheim Archive

It’s hard to complain about the Yankees considering how well they’ve played. But the Yankees may have lost game three in Anaheim due to Joe Girardi’s mismanagement.

In the 8th inning, the Yankees were down a run when Hideki Matsui walked. Joe Girardi replaced him with Brett Gardner who was subsequently caught stealing on a Kevin Jespen pitch out. Jorge Posada was the next batter and hit the Yankees’ 4th solo homer of the night to tie the game. Had Gardner been on base, the Yankees would have gone into the final frame with a one-run lead.

The next seemingly wrong decision came in the bottom of the 11th inning. David Robertson came on in relief of Mariano Rivera and retired the first two batters of the inning. Then Girardi decided to pull Robertson for Alfredo Aceves who gave up a single to Howie Kendrick followed by a game-winning double by Jeff Mathis.

With two game-changing late-inning choices that burned him, Girardi didn’t have much to say about the game. Here’s a summary of his comments via The LoHud Yankees Blog:

Joe Girardi’s postgame press conference lasted about three minutes, and his explanation for taking out Dave Robertson and bringing in Alfredo Aceves was that the Yankees “liked the match-up better.” Asked to elaborate on that since Howie Kendrick was 1-for-2 lifetime against Robertson and had never faced Aceves, Girardi declined. Pitching coach Dave Eiland did the same. As you know, Kendrick singled and Jeff Mathis brought him home with the winning run moments later.

However, the performance wasn’t all bad. Alex Rodriguez continued his hot hitting and now has four homers and nine RBI in six playoff games. The Yankees also flashed their incredible comeback ability when Jorge Posada tied the game in the eighth. While the pitching wasn’t stellar, Andy Pettitte had a solid outing. Mariano Rivera also did an amazing high-wire act by getting out of the 10th inning that started with a lead off double.