Anyone else question the move by Joe Girardi in yanking right hander David Robertson after 2 quick outs in the bottom of the 11th to put in another right hander, Alfredo Aceves? Aceves went on to give up two quick hits and the eventual winning run. Bad move Mr. Girardi. Bad move.
Yeah...me. And I'm not just questioning it now, when he was walking to mound I was saying 'you've got to be kidding me'. I don't care what some book tells you...sometimes what you see with your eyes is more important than what you see in a book.
Our eyes tell us Robertson has pitched wonderfully this post-season, while Aceves has been teetering on the edge. And Robertson had already recorded two easy outs in the inning.
For the record, whoever was up (after Abreu, Hunter and Guerrero all those Angel guys seem the same to me) was 1 for 2 lifetime against Robertson, with a strikeout. No word on whether the one hit was a 450 foot homer or a broken bat bloop. And he had NO history with Aceves. 0 for 0. And Girardi makes the change.
Girardi has been over-managing the bullpen the entire post-season, but the offense and the Twins' baserunning have rendered Girardi's selections moot. Last night it wasn't moot.
Two outs, nobody on, and he's treating the batter like he's...A-Rod or something. The BEST-CASE scenario is Aceves gets out of the inning and the game goes on...then what, Joe? You can't bring Robertson back in when the situation calls for it. You can't manage batter for batter. There are too many batters. This is two games in a row where only Gaudin is left in the bullpen. You just can't manage the extra innings like that.
Very difficult to watch a game where your manager does not put you in the best position to win. We had Texeira and A-Rod leading off the next inning, but thanks to Girardi we didn't get there.
Teams lose. The Rangers got thumped last night...it happens. Tortorella sat Lundqvist and played the backup goalie. It happens. The backup has to play sometime. Bad luck, you lose...you move on.
But this is different. This is the manager not seeing what everyone else saw. This is not second-guessing, as Robertson was walking off I felt exactly the same way Buck and McCarver did. Most every Yankee fan did.
Oh well, at least we can't blow a 3-0 lead again...
Sandra