Not good enough.
Yesterday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, with both the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays wearing special caps and commemorative patches for Armed Forces Day, Masahiro Tanaka was about as good as you can get: 6 innings, no runs, 3 hits, no walks, 6 strikeouts. He had thrown just 88 pitches.
A manager with a clue -- or with the guts to stand up to a general manager without a clue -- would have left him in. But Aaron Boone doesn't have the guts to stand up to Brian Cashman, and put Tommy Kahnle in to pitch the top of the 7th. He gave up a home run to Nate Lowe.
Other than that 1 at-bat, the Yankees' pitching was excellent. Only 1 run on 5 hits and no walks in 11 innings. Of course, if it wasn't for that 1 at-bat, there wouldn't have been a 10th and 11th inning. This one is on Cashman and his lapdog Boone.
Said pitching was excellent, that is, until the 11th inning. Boone should have left Tanaka in for the 7th, had Zack Britton pitch the 8th and the 9th (instead of only the 8th, and kept Kahnle in the bullpen), had Jonathan Holder pitch both the 10th (which he did) and the 11th (which he didn't), save Aroldis Chapman for tomorrow (instead of having him pitch the 9th), and not bring Luis Cessa in at all. Cessa blew the game in the 11th, and not only does he not belong on the Yankees, he doesn't belong in the major leagues.
The game went to extra innings because the Yankees didn't hit, either. Their only run, in the 3rd inning, didn't even score as the result of a hit: Brett Gardner scored from 3rd base when Rays starter Blake Snell threw a wild pitch.
The Yankees stranded a man on 1st in the 1st inning, had a man on 1st with 1 out erased via a double play in the 2nd, left men on 2nd & 3rd in the 3rd, wasted a man on 1st with 1 out in the 4th, had a Aaron Hicks thrown out at the plate on a Gleyber Torres single to end the 6th, wasted a man on 1st with 1 out in the 7th, stranded a man on 1st in the 8th, and Gary Sanchez grounded into a double play to blow a leadoff single by Luke Voit in the 11th, ending the game.
I hate losing. I especially hate losing in extra innings. If you're gonna lose, don't keep us hanging: Do it in 9!
Rays 2, Yankees 1. WP: Hunter Wood (1-0). SV: Jose Alvarado (5). LP: Cessa (0-1). The Yankees fall back to half a game behind the Rays in the American League Eastern Division, 1 back in the loss column.
The series concludes this afternoon. Hopefully, Cashman won't think of a way to force Boone to screw it up. Failing that, maybe Boone will say, "Screw you, Cashman," and do it his way.
Maybe not: Chad Green, who's been horrible, is penciled in as the starter, against Charlie Morton, who famously started and won Game 7 of the 2017 American League Championship Series for the Houston Astros, against the Yankees.
This could be a long game.
Damn it, Cashman, you could still sign Dallas Keuchel!
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