Boston Miscue Means Cashman & Girardi Must Go

I had hoped that this weekend's 4-game series in Boston against the Red Sox would be a repeat of the September 7-10, 1978 series that became known as "The Boston Massacre." I wasn't asking for scores of 15-3, 13-2, 7-0 and 7-4, as in '78. But I was hoping to have gone in 4 games behind the Sox for the lead in the American League Eastern Division, and emerge tied.

Here's how close that came to happening:

* Thursday night: Yanks led 5-2 going into the bottom of the 9th inning, and were ahead 5-4 needing 1 more out to finish the win.

* Friday night: Yanks trailed only 3-2 going into the bottom of the 6th.

* Saturday afternoon: Yanks led 5-4 going into the bottom of the 7th.

* Sunday night: Yanks led 4-3 going into the bottom of the 6th.

As you can see, all 4 games were very much winnable.

Instead, the Red Sox won, 7-5, 7-4, 6-5 and 5-4.

These games were lost because Brian Cashman dealt Joe Girardi a lousy hand by gutting the bullpen, and Girardi played that hand horribly.

This was not a Boston Massacre. This was a Boston Miscue.

So now, the Yankees are 8 games out, and 4 games out in the Wild Card race. When they could have, and should have, had a very serious chance to win the Division and avoid that win-or-go-home Game 163 entirely.

Don't tell me the Yankees were never in it. That is a lie. Don't tell me the Yankees "had to rebuild." That's an even bigger lie. Had they merely split this series, they would have been 4 games back with 13 to go, and would still have had a chance at the Division, especially with 3 more games with the Sox in The Bronx.

Don't tell me the farm system needed to be rebuilt. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders have won the International League Pennant. The Trenton Thunder made the Eastern League Playoffs. The Tampa Yankees made the Florida State League Playoffs. The Charleston RiverDogs made the South Atlantic League Playoffs, as 1st-half champions of their Division. The Staten Island Yankees made the New York-Penn League Playoffs. The top 5 teams in the farm system all made the Playoffs.

The Yankees' farm system was fine. It's the major-league team that needed help.

Instead, Cashman and Girardi made a difficult situation worse.

Both must go in the off-season. Because the purpose of the New York Yankees is to win the World Series. And Cashman and Girardi have not brought us closer to achieving that goal next season, or the season after, or the season after that. They have pushed us further away.

George Steinbrenner would have fired both years ago.

But Hal and Hank Steinbrenner haven't. What will it take? Must Girardi get caught punching out a guy in a bar, like Billy Martin? Must Cashman, as the old saying goes, be caught with a dead girl or a live boy?

They should be fired on merit. Or, rather lack thereof.

Don't wait until the end of the season. Do it now.

At this point, I'd even take Alex Rodriguez in either post over those two.