A Game You just can't afford to Lose

Your Ace on the mound, at home, against the worst team in baseball, and maybe the worst team since the 1962 Mets. And the Yankees lose. Down 3-0, they storm back in the middle innings to take a 4-3 lead and the Yankees lose. Torre for once trusts Farnsworth, as I have been arguing and he fucking blows up in the seventh, and the Yankees lose. Down 7-4 in the eighth, the Yankees get runners on second and third with noone out, thanks in large part to a double by AROD (3 hits), and Cano, Williams, and Cabrera not only make three consecutive outs, but only push home one run in the process. The Yankees narrow the lead to 7-6 in the home ninth, thanks to Damon (3 hits), Jeter (2 hits and 2 walks) and Sheffield, but with runners on first and third one out, Torre lets Giambi hit into the shift instead of bunting him to tie the game. Of course he hits into a double play, which he's been doing more and more of lately, and the Yankees lose. As the message boarders point out, on a wet field, the play was to send Sheffield on a steal with one out and bring Jeter home if they bite and throw to second. If they don't, and they probably wouldn't, Giambi's grounder ties the game.

I suggested that the Yankees might take their injuries as an oppurtunity to reinvent themselves as a smaller ball team and recently I heard Joe second that recommendation. It should be said however that playoff caliber small ball really does require a manager whose field tactics are consistently sound and occasionally brilliant, not as in Torre's case, consistently uninspired and occasionally inept. You have to be willing to take chances to play small ball and as one fan correctly noted, Torre always plays it safe, which is one of the reasons I call him status quo Joe.

The Yankees have already turned a number of victories into defeats this year. When it is all over, and they miss the playoffs for the first time since 1994, these games--the Mets rubber game, the Royals tonight, the rubber match against the A's in Oakland, the second game against the Angels--will be the reason, and noone will look this far back and notice.