Boone Vas Just Following Orders

Last night, the Yankees began a 3-game series away to the Houston Astros. And they should have won it. Unfortunately, Aaron Boone had his orders.

Masahiro Tanaka started, and pitched really well, going 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts.

And he had the lead. He has given up a long home run to Jose Altuve in the 4th inning, but an RBI single by Luke Voit had put the Yankees on the board in the 3rd, Aaron Judge had given the Yankees back the lead with a solo homer in the 5th, and Clint Frazier continued his redemption with an RBI single in the 6th.

It was 3-1 Yankees. Tanaka had outpitched likely future Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander. He had allowed a double and a walk in the 6th, but had worked out of it. He had thrown only 78 pitches. He was cruising.

There was absolutely no reason why an intelligent manager would have taken him out. He absolutely should have begun the bottom of the 7th inning still on the mound.

Unfortunately, the Yankees manager is Aaron Boone, and he is under orders from general manager Brian Cashman to not let his starters pitch any longer than that. So Boone sent Zack Britton in to pitch the bottom of the 7th.

Britton is a good pitcher. Maybe he would have been fine, if Boone had let Tanaka pitch the 7th and Boone Britton the 8th, or even if he'd let Tanaka pitch for 8 innings, and brought Britton in for the 9th.

Instead, Boone followed orders, and brought Britton in for the 7th. And here is what Britton allowed: Single, fielder's choice, groundout, walk, game-tying double.

That's when Boone brought Adam Ottavino in, and he got out of the jam with the score 3-3. In the 8th, he struck out the side. But he also allowed a walk and 2 singles, giving the Astros the lead. Cliche alert: Walks can kill you. Although those walks might not have happened had Cashman let his manager leave Tanaka in longer.

If this was a Mets game, Met fans and the national media would be slobbering, telling us how Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball, and the Mets would have won the game easily had he been allowed to stay in and win the game.

Instead, it was a Yankee game, and Cashman gets praised for his GM genius, while Boone gets called an idiot. We know the truth: Boone was betrayed by his orders. We all were.

Astros 4, Yankees 3. WP: Ryan Pressly (1-0). SV: Roberto Osuna (3). LP: Ottavino (1-1).

Don't blame Ottavino. He was put into a situation he never should have been in.

Don't blame Britton. He was put into maybe the right situation, at definitely the wrong time.

Don't blame Boone. He can always use the line that Nazi war criminals used at Nuremberg: "I vas just following orders."

Someday, he may decide, "To Hell with Cashman's orders. I have to win this game, and my starting pitcher is cruising, and I'm going to let him pitch."

The series continues tonight. I'm not even going to tell you the starting pitchers are supposed to be, because, with Cashman running things, it may not even matter.

Cashman's demand of a pitch limit ultimately cost Joe Girardi his chance at becoming one of the great Yankee managers. And it may have cost the Yankees up to 5 Division titles in this decade, and possibly multiple Pennants and World Championships.

How much longer are George Steinbrenner's children going to put up with this shit? As you can see, I am not putting up with it.