The New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi took out two of his pitchers in the 3-2 win of Tampa Bay on Wednesday, which has created a stir.
With the Yankees leading 3-1 in the bottom of the 5th, Girardi took out Jaime Garcia with two outs, and dangerous hitter Evan Longoria coming up and an opportunity to tie the game with a home run. I personally thought this was a great move. Garcia who has his ERA with the Yankees over 5.00 makes you uncomfortable every inning he’s in the game. He is all over the place and is maybe a number 5 in the rotation. I wasn’t a fan of the trade that brought him to New York prior to the trading deadline either. Maybe he was a very good pitcher in 2011 with the St. Louis Cardinals but has not been impressive with the Yankees with an 0-2 record. As
Girardi approached the mound to take the ball from Garcia, Garcia did not look at Girardi and was seen on camera muttering to himself. Maybe he forgot that within the last month Girardi has removed two of his star pitchers CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka in similar situations and not a peep was heard from either pitcher. The team is trying to make it into the playoffs and that is more important than a players ego.
Girardi could be seen talking to Garcia in the dugout and I can just imagine what was being said. Managers do not like to be embarrassed in front of stadium fans. If Garcia is unhappy maybe he should ask to be released.
The second pitcher who was removed in the 8th inning of the same game with the score still 3-1, was Dellin Betances, who has been one of the best set up men in baseball the past few years. This year has been a little different. He still dominates at times but has been extremely wild this year. When he comes into a game, I can see Girardi aging before my eyes. Before you know it, there are several men on the bases and Betances has to struggle just to get out of that inning. Either his knuckle curve is not fooling anyone or his fastball is all over the place.
In this particular game he struck out the first batter, gave up a hit then struck out the next batter but was lucky because his change-up should have been hit a million miles but the batter just missed it. Well the next batter Steven Souza, who has 29 homeruns, 27 of them off right handed pitchers and has one off of Betances as well. So as a manager you want to win and you have Aroldis Chapman ready in the bullpen, what would you do?
Chapman did come in, but was wild allowing one runner to score in that inning and struck out the last batter keeping the score at 3-2. The next inning after walking the lead off batter, Chapman struck out the side and Yankees won the game 3-2. So all the moves by Girardi in this game worked.
Jaime Garcia said the right things when interviewed by the press but Betances chose to air out his displeasure with the press. The Betances that the fans have been watching the past several years would have finished that inning but the Betances they are watching this year is no longer an automatic and needs to understand the manager is responsible to the team and not one particular player. Girardi wants to take this team to the playoffs and lately he has been managing as such. With all ego’s aside Betances and Garcia need to put aside their bad feelings with Girardi. They need to just go out and pitch better and maybe they might be able to finish their innings.
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