Hello, Joe, What Do You Know? Nothing

Going into tonight's game, the Yankees are 38-25, and lead the American League Eastern Division by 2 games over the Boston Red Sox.

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.

Sabathia's Injury More Worrying That Girardi's Latest Idiocy

The Yankees went into last night's game with the Los Angeles... aw, screw it. In Anaheim with a 6-game winning streak.

But you win games with good pitching and good hitting. The former, we got. The latter, not so much.

CC Sabathia started, and after 4 innings, had allowed 1 run (unearned) on 3 hits and a walk, with 4 strikeouts. So far, very good.

Then CC left the game. A painful hamstring. Oh no.

He'd pitched to a 0.99 ERA in his last 6 starts, including this one. If he's unavailable, especially long-term, that's a serious problem in the bid for Title 28. We already need 1 starting pitcher, since we can't be sure that Masahiro Tanaka is straightened out. We don't need to need another.

Joe Girardi gave the ball to Yeovany Gallegos. Yankee Fans everywhere said, "I can't look... " but he was fine, allowing just 1 baserunner in 2 innings. Adam Warren: Same, but he pitched a scoreless 7th inning.

A Brett Gardner single in the 5th brought home a run, and Chase Headley hit a home run in the top of the 7th, his 4th homer of the year. Going to the bottom of the 8th, it was 2-1 Yankees.

Unfortunately, instead of using his brain, Girardi used his binder, and brought Tyler Clippard in to pitch the bottom of the 8th. The 1st batter was Eric Young Jr. of Piscataway, son of Eric Young Sr. of New Brunswick. Each was one of the greatest athletes ever to come out of Middlesex County, New Jersey. Eric Jr. hit a home run to tie the game. Nice move, Girardi.

Headley got to 2nd base in the 9th, but was stranded. Girardi burned another pitcher by bringing in Jonathan Holder, but he got through it, and the game went to extra innings. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 10th. Girardi burned another pitcher by bringing in Chasen Shreve. He barely got out of a jam.

Then came the top of the 11th. With 1 out, Gary Sanchez drew a walk. This is where we should have had the cliche alert that walks can kill you. Didi Gregorius doubled to deep right. Sanchez should have scored, but he couldn't. It was 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.

Headley was intentionally walked, so that the Angels could face Chris Carter. Chris Carter, who led the National League with 41 home runs last season. Chris Carter, who is batting .207 in the American League this season, on-base percentage .298.

He led the NL in homers last season. This season, Chase Headley is being intentionally walked to face him. Chase. Headley.

Carter could have made Angels manager Mike Scioscia look very foolish. All he had to do was get the ball out of the infield. A decent fly out would have gotten Ronald Torreyes home.

Oh yeah: Girardi was the manager who looked very foolish, because he didn't put Torreyes in as a pinch-runner for Sanchez until Carter came up. Why didn't he do that after Sanchez' walk? It would probably have won the game.

Carter popped up. So did Gardner. End of threat. Bottom of the 11th, Shreve proved that, yes, walks can kill you, especially leadoff walks. Walk, flyout, stolen base, groundout moves runner to 3rd, walk, and Young hurt the Yankees again with a grounder to short, and Gregorius had no play anywhere.

Angels 3, Yankees 2. WP: Kenyan Middleton (2-0). No save. LP: Shreve (1-1), although the loss should be charged to Girardi -- at the very least, to Clippard.

Losing CC is quite a worry. The Yankees have until his next scheduled start, on Sunday, to decide whether to put him on the Disabled List (retroactive to today). He says he feels better today. We'll see, but we may not want to see.

Sunday is also when Aroldis Chapman could come off the DL. He pitched a simulated game in Tampa yesterday, and was fine. Not that he would have made much of a difference last night, as Girardi would have either not pitched him at all (the "You don't pitch Mariano in a tie game" rule, which is in no book, except maybe the damn binder), or pitched him for 1 inning and then put out Shreve or some other lesser pitcher.

The series concludes tonight. Michael Pineda starts against Matt Shoemaker. Then, the Yankees go up the Coast to Oakland.