another disgrace

The Yankees and their idiot manager make me right so often I want to puke.

Tonight Giambi comes up in the top of the ninth, the Yanks down 3-1, on yet another pathetic hitting performance (3 hits to that point). Figgins is halfway between third and short and announcer John Sterling concedes that if Giambi could lay a bunt down (he bluffed one on the first pitch) he would be sure to secure a hit. "But what if he can't bunt," Steling opined, "then what? then you've wasted an at bat if he bunts it back to the pitcher or something." That must have been what slow-Joe was thinking too, because Giambi proceeds to hit away. He smacks a hard one hopper to Adam Kennedy, shifted into short right, who throws Giambi out. "Tough luck," the moronic Sterling exclaims, "if it hadn't been for the shift that would have been a hit." Well it's not tough luck. Giambi should have bunted, and if he can't bunt, that's unacceptable. Get him out there in the mornings to practice bunting till his fucking hands bleed. He's paid 15 mill a year, he has to be able to master a modest skill like bunting, particularly when its vital to his success as a hitter. You're not going to get Adam Kennedy out of short right, unless you force Figgins to play his position, and he'll only do that if he's conceding Giambi first base otherwise. I know Ted Williams insisted on hitting into the shift, with monumental effectiveness, but not to belabor the obvious, Jason Giambi is no Ted Williams.

Now I happen to believe Giambi can in fact bunt. I've seen him do it successfully. And if that is the case, then there is no reason that he doesn't pick up the free base down two in the ninth. I mean if their going to let you bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth you do it, particularly with noone out. No questions asked. Even slow-Joe should be able to think that one through. Speaking of tying runs, the next batter, Matsui, jacks one out of the park, putting the Yankees down 3-2, which was the final score. In other words, Gambi's failure to take the free base, which is to say Torre's failure to direct him to do so, cost the Yankees the game. If I'm Steinbrenner, the last out of the evening would also be the last out of Joe's reign of error.

The next batter after Matsui was Posada, who was dh-ing with Stinnett catching Johnson. Can somebody tell me why you would ever let a lame hitter like Jorge DH. I mean Andy Phillips, Miguel Cairo, Bubba Crosby, they all in their way have a greater upside than a slow, inconsistent, strikeout and double play specialist like Posada (he struck out in the ninth by the way, on a bad pitch, to complete a collar for the evening--big surprise). When Cano subsequently got a hit, Torre brought out Bernie from his night of rest just to make damn sure the Yankees would lose their fourth in a row. Bernie, as we all would predict, hit a nubber back to Frankie Rodriguez, and the greatest franchise on earth slipped yet again into the slough of defeat.

Torre always takes early season defeats casually. It's a long season, he pontificates, with the spurious sagacity of which he is a past master. It seems that he has yet to grasp the fungibility of all regular season games. In the past few years, the Yankees inability to win in April has required them to grind out lots of pressure games in September, which has resulted in flat tired performances in October. Torre's laissez faire early season attitude is a playoff handicap, one the Yankees are not good enough defensively, in the bullpen, or as situational hitters, to overcome.

I'm having a hard time seeing how they win this season. It's not that they're 1-4. It's that a pattern is repeating itself that we have all seen before. They don't hit good pitching and since their own pitching is okay but not great (note: the Red Sox have already won two 2-1 games this season), they almost always lose to teams like the A's, the Angels, the White Sox, teams that bring high quality starters to the party. They are also the teams you face in the playoffs.