By my estimation, of those 25 games they've lost, 4 have been because Joe Girardi doesn't know how to manage a pitching staff.
If Girardi had gotten even half of those monumental screwups right, the Yankees would be 4 games up. In other words, they could fall out of 1st place over the weekend; with just half of those screwups turned around, they couldn't.
It is now suspected that CC Sabathia's hamstring problem, which cut short his start against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim on Tuesday night, could keep him out for 6 weeks. If that's true, and Masahiro Tanaka isn't fully back following his last start, a very good one after some terrible ones, then the Yankees will have 2 holes in their starting rotation.
And when Brian Cashman threw a chance at last year's Playoffs away for 135 "prospects," none of whom are anywhere near ready for the major leagues, he didn't get a starting pitcher.
Don't tell me Gleyber Torres is ready, or even almost ready: He's batting .281 with 7 home runs and 34 RBIs in the minor leagues. He's not ready to replace even Chase Headley.
Michael Pineda started for the Yankees last night, and despite Gary Sanchez' 11th home run of the season being part of a 4-0 lead the Bronx Bombers handed him before he even took the mound, he had nothing. By the end of the 3rd inning, he had put the Yankees in a 5-4 hole.
The Yankees tied the game in the 6th, but Girardi put rookie Ronald Herrera into the game for the 7th. Herrera is a 22-year-old righthanded Venezuelan, who made his major league debut, wearing Number 41. And he gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th to cost the Yankees the game.
Girardi could have left Pineda in, as shaky as he was. Or he could have brought in an experienced, competent reliever, instead of a kid "earning his first cap," as they say in soccer. The score could have been worse, but the result could not.
As with the night before, the damage was done by Eric Young Jr., the Piscataway, New Jersey multi-sport athlete (and son of Eric Young, the New Brunswick, New Jersey and Rutgers University multi-sport athlete) who spent the 2014 and '15 seasons with the Mets, and 6 games with the Yankees last year, but is now driving them crazy, including ruining Herrera's debut with the winning hit last night.
Angels 7, Yankees 5. WP: Blake Parker (2-2). SV: David Hernandez (1). LP: Herrera (0-1).
Hello, Joe: What do you know? "Only what's in my binder. I'm such a schmo."
You know nothing, Joe Snow.
The Yankees have now flown up the West Coast, and begin a 4-game series with the Oakland Athletics tonight. Here are the projected starting pitchers:
* Tonight, 10:05 PM our time (7:05 local): Jordan Montgomery vs. Sonny Gray.
* Tomorrow, 9:35 (6:35): Luis Severino vs. Sean Manea.
* Saturday, 4:05 (1:05): Tanaka vs. Jesse Hahn.
* Sunday, 4:05 (1:05): Jharel Cotton for the A's, and, with CC a question mark (he says he feels better), the Yankees' starting slot for Sunday is as yet undetermined.
We shall see -- but probably not CC.
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