Y'all Ain't Never Know Shit

The Yankees pissed away game 2 of their series against the Cleveland Indians in a most disgusting, get-sent-to-the-bow way.  Yankees manager Joe Girardi made several dodgy moves and decisions that call his game managing skills into question.

Girardi pulled CC Sabathia too early, he failed to challenge a hit batsman call, even with the advice of his catcher, and left relievers out there too long.

After mowing down 11 consecutive batters, CC gives up a single to start the 6th inning to some guy sporting a GH beard and Monchhichi cheeks. He gets Jay Bruce on a soft liner, after which Girardi pulls him.  Not that it matters what he tells the press, because Bokolis believes you may lie to the press with impunity, but Girardi said something about several recent batters hitting the ball on the screws.

Word?  To Bokolis, they looked off-balance and consigned to defeat.  I hope you didn't try and sell that shit to your team.

If Jay Bruce were a right-handed batter, CC wouldn't even have gotten to face him.  Nonetheless, CC is pulled after 5-1/3 innings and 77 pitches, after grinding through the first two innings, even with a Todd Frazier misplay in each, and putting the opposition on the back foot.

He brings in Chad Green, who retires a batter, gives up a double and apparently hits a batter.  Catcher Gary Sanchez immediately points to Girardi to challenge the call.  Girardi opts to wait for the geeks in the control room to get back to him, which takes more than the allotted 30 seconds to determine that the ball hit the bat and would've been a foul tip-strike three to end the half-inning.

Granted, Sanchez looks like a dumb fuck, even a little like Aaron Hernandez.  But, WTF was Girardi going to do with that challenge besides rub it on his cunt?  Even after burning the challenge, the umpires have shown that they can be coaxed into an umpire review.

Girardi isn't fooling anyone.  Bokolis has always had a problem with the way Girardi uses his bullpen because the latter alternately tries to squeeze one more out from his pitcher or pulls him too early.  It's how Girardi took the 2009 Yankees, a borderline superteam on paper, and turned them into just another World Series champion.  I suppose this is what the geek books tell Girardi to do.  It could also be his ego telling him that he's every bit as good as, say, Francona or La Russa.

After Green having to battle with two guys and, likely thinking he should be out of the inning, Francisco Lindor hits the second pitch he sees from Green off the foul pole, a grand slam to make it 8-7.

At that point, Bokolis knew, one way or another, that the Yankees were fucked.  But, I didn't think it would be all because of Girardi.  I was thinking more along the lines of a pinch runner getting picked off and stuff like that.

Just because something works out, doesn't mean it is the correct move.  Not using a starter in the wildcard game for innings 3-6 started a chain reaction that set the Yankees back in this series.  Instead, he left Green out there too long and had to use Robertson to bail him out- and left in Robertson for too long. Everybody who pitched was left in too long.

What is worse, the outlying result of four relievers getting 26 outs gave Girardi the bright idea to try and milk his bullpen for 11 outs (three nights later) when CC was rolling, as if CC couldn't have gotten the game to the 8th with the Yankees still leading 8-5, which any Yankees fan would've signed for in a second.

Except for, possibly, an inning of relief in a supposed game 5, CC was not going to pitch for at least a week.  There was no reason not to ride him.  Moreover, CC pitches markedly better when he is fat- and he's got a major league boiler going these days.

That Girardi could've bailed himself out by challenging the hit batter would not have made pulling CC the correct move.  In a playoff series, you show your relievers as little as possible.  The reason they are relievers- and not starters- is because every reliever who is not already in the Hall of Fame or not named Mariano Rivera has shown that he cannot consistently get the same guys out more than once in the same series.

CC was still on his third time through the order.  Bokolis' outlook was that he was good to finish that turn through and THEN go batter to batter.  The over/under on when to pull him was after Kipnis, which still gave him five batters.

Further, it is Bokolis' position that, if you send a pitcher out to start an inning, you must trust him to finish the inning.  Bringing guys into messes takes a feel for the players and the game that Girardi doesn't have.  Francona kind of has it, but I've seen only La Russa and Sparky Anderson be able to consistently wave a magic wand in those situations.  Even Bruce Bochy isn't consistent with his wand.

All that said, except for it being inconsistent with his over-managing, Bokolis didn't necessarily have a problem with Girardi leaving in Green to pitch to Lindor.  While I don't like the idea of Lindor batting left-handed because he seems to have lightning in his hands from the left side, if you didn't trust Green to finish the inning, he shouldn't have been brought in at all.

Green didn't finish the inning, it turned out.  Robertson was brought in after Lindor's grand slam and made liberal use of his sharp curveball to easily bang out four batters.  He should have been holstered and saved for later in the series.

However, not content with that and probably hesitant to use Betances, Girardi trots out Robertson for the 8th inning.  Again, Girardi was likely trying to squeeze two outs out of Robertson so that he could go directly to Chapman.  If this was his plan, Girardi still had so many options in his bullpen.  He could have matched up a LOOGY for Bruce- to use a righty who is not fresh and not the closer in that situation borders on criminal- and bring in a right-hander to pitch to (up to) the next three batters.

As with Chad Green in the wild card game, Girardi did not consider what pitching for the strikeout does to a pitcher's stamina.  Just as Green faltered in the 3rd inning on Tuesday, Robertson gave it up to Jay Bruce.  What is worse, Robertson had noticeably less zip on the pitches before the 3-1 that Bruce took out to left.  After retiring the next batter- throwing three toothless pitches- on a rocket to short, Girardi finally woke up and didn't let Robertson go any further.

Kahnle got through the 8th and Chapman got through his two innings.  Betances, now needed, banged out two innings.  However, the Yankees, already in cruise mode, increasingly got the worse of the HP umpire's wandering strike zone and didn't offer much after Bird's HR in the 5th.

Yet, Girardi, after shunning him, tried to squeeze a third inning out of Betances.  As with Robertson after his third walk to the mound, Betances had noticeably less pop on his pitches to the first batter of the bottom 13th.  As has become his telltale sign of being gassed, he reverted to throwing almost all curveballs.  Anyone who understands body language could recognize that Betances was spooked by the swing Jay Bruce put on his 0-1 fastball- a foul tip- in the bottom 12th.

This is an issue because, when Girardi, as an extension of the front office, scolded Betances for his ineffective stretch this season, Girardi pissed and moaned about his reliance on the curve ball.  For fuck's sake, the front office exploited ineffectiveness arising from his overuse in 2016 to shit all over Betances in arbitration.  So, for Girardi to put Betances in a situation where he reverted to bad habits merits Betances putting a size 16 boot in Girardi's mouth.

Hey, Bokolis acknowledges that I've won plenty of championships from my couch, but am unproven in a MLB dugout.  I'm pretty sure, however, that, after over a decade in such a dugout, I'd have a feel for my team and know whatthefuck I could get out of them.a