And You Thought the Girardi Era Was Over. April Fool!

And you thought the Joe Girardi Era was over. Well, April Fool!

Sonny Gray started the finale of the Yankees' season-opening 4-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. For 4 innings, he was okay, giving up just 1 run on 7 hits, 3 walks and 8 strikeouts.

But new manager Aaron Boone saw that he'd thrown 89 pitches (albeit 53 of them for strikes), and took him out. What the hell?

Did Girardi leave the binder behind? Or was the problem never actually Girardi, but general manager Brian Cashman? Does Cashman insist that all his managers use a goddamned pitch count?

At first, it looked like it might not matter. Trailing 1-0 in the top of the 3rd, the Yankees got 4 runs, on a Didi Gregorius double, a Neil Walker single, and a Brandon Drury home run. I became (as far as I know) the 1st Yankee Fan on Twitter to say that Aaron, Brandon and Giancarlo Stanton were "Judge, Drury and Executioner."

The Yankees' 4-1 lead held into the bottom of the 7th, as Chad Green pitched 2 scoreless innings. But then, Boone made the kind of mistake that Girardi would have made, and took a 2nd pitcher out of the game too soon. He brought Tommy Kahnle in to pitch the 7th, and he gave up a 2-run homer to Justin Smoak. 4-3 New York.

Kahnle couldn't finish the 7th, so Boone brought David Robertson in. In the bottom of the 8th, Robertson loaded the bases, and Smoak came up again, and hit another home run. A grand slam.

In a span of 2 innings, Boone's Bullpen Blunders (I may have coined a phrase there) turned a 4-1 Yankees lead into a 7-4 Blue Jays win.

UPDATE: Looks  like Yanks Go Yard thought it up at the same time that I did.

To make matters even more embarrassing, the winning pitcher for the Jays was Tyler Clippard, who spectacularly failed in 2 different run-throughs with the Yankees, but has succeeded with every one of his other teams. Seung-Hwan Oh got his 1st save of the season for the Jays. Robertson was the losing pitcher (0-1), but this loss was all on Boone -- or on whoever ordered him to keep a pitch count, probably Cashman.

The Yankees come home at 2-2. Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind getting a split in Toronto against those pesky Blue Jays. It's the way we lost those 2 games.

I really thought that no longer having Girardi as manager meant we wouldn't have such bullpen stupidity.

Gray should have been left in for the 5th. Then Green could have pitched the 6th and the 7th, and Kahnle, still having a 4-1 lead, could have pitched the 8th and the 9th. Better yet, Gray could have pitched the 1st 7, which would have meant a total of around 115 to 120 pitches, which should not be a big deal for a major league pitcher. Then Green could have pitched the 8th and the 9th, and the Yankees would have won 4-1.

Instead...

Tomorrow is the home opener, at 1:05 PM, against the Tampa Bay Rays. Jordan Montgomery starts for us, and Rays manager Kevin Cash remains undecided as of this writing. To guard against a rainout (or even a snowout, which current forecasts show is possible), Tuesday is an off-day. Then, on Wednesday, at 1:05 PM, it's Luis Severino for us, Chris Archer for them. Then the Baltimore Orioles come in for a 4-game series that begins on Thursday.

Cech It Out: My Bad Weekend Gets Worse

Going into yesterday, the Yankees hadn't lost a series since late June.

Thanks to Joe Girardi, now, we have.

Last week, against Boston, Girardi took Luis Severino out after 5 innings. Yesterday, against those pesky Toronto Blue Jays, he left Ivan Nova in for a 6th. It should have been the other way around.

To be fair, Nova looked great for the 1st 5 innings, allowing just 2 hits and a walk, and only 1 baserunner to get as far as 2nd base.

But the Yankees hadn't scored, either. Here are their baserunners over that span: A walk by Carlos Beltran in the 2nd, a walk by Jacoby Ellsbury in the 3rd, a leadoff single by Alex Rodriguez in the 4th, and... that's it.

Nova got the 1st out in the top of the 6th. And then the roof caved in. He walked Josh Donaldson. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you. He then allowed single to Jose Bautista. He then walked Edwin Encarnacion to load the bases. And then he gave up a grand slam to Justin Smoak.

What's a Justin Smoak? He's got 71 home runs over the last 5 seasons (although he missed half of last season due to injury), but he's batting .228, and that's only slighly above his lifetime batting average, .224.

There's no point in detailing the rest of the game. It ended 6-0, and the Yankees never looked like scoring. WP: David Price (11-4). No save. LP: Nova (4-4).

The Yankees are now just 2 1/2 games ahead of the Jays, although it's 4 in the loss column. The series concludes this afternoon. Masahiro Tanaka starts against Marco Estrada. Then we head out to Cleveland to play the Indians, and then 3 more against the Jays in Toronto. It will be the biggest series in that city since the Jays won the 1993 World Series.

*

Then, this morning, my weekend got worse. Arsenal opened the season in pathetic form, losing 2-0 to West Ham United, the pride of London's East End.

Much-hyped goalkeeping acquisition Petr Cech allowed 2 cheap goals. Indeed, except for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, nobody played well for Arsenal, including such world-class players as Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud. (Nor did Alexis Sanchez, who came on as a substitute, not starting because of his late return from helping Chile win the Copa America.)

For all the hype over Cech, for all the slobbering over him that Arsenal fans did, his first game for us was like when James Bond fans heard that, finally, Pierce Brosnan was going to take the role -- and ended up getting Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. For Arsenal fans, this was like getting The World Is Not Enough first.

The Yankees better hang another 13-run outburst on the Jays, while the New York Red Bulls better batter visiting New York City FC tonight.

*

Hours until the Red Bulls play again: 7, tonight, at 7:00, against New York City FC, a.k.a. Manchester City NYC, at Red Bull Arena in Harrison.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": See the previous answer. The next game against the New England Revolution will be on Saturday night, August 22, at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The next game against D.C. United will be on Sunday night, August 30, at Red Bull Arena. The next game against the Philadelphia Union will be on Sunday night, October 18, at Red Bull Arena, the regular season finale.

Days until Arsenal play again: 7, a week from today, 8:30 in the morning our time, away to Southeast London club Crystal Palace.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 22, on Monday, August 31, at 7:00 PM, at Fenway Park.

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 25, on Thursday night (why?), September 3, away to Woodbridge. Under 4 weeks.

Days until the U.S. national soccer team plays again: 26, on Friday night, September 4, in a friendly with Peru at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 27, on Saturday afternoon, September 5, home to Norfolk State.

Days until the Devils play again: 61, on Friday, October 9, home to the Winnipeg Jets. Just 2 months.

Days until the Islanders' first home game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn: 61, also on Friday, October 9, against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Or, to put it another way, "61 Sleeps Till Brooklyn." Until then, despite having definitively played their last competitive game in the Nassau Coliseum, even with their 4 straight long-ago Stanley Cups, they're just a Small Club In Hempstead.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: 70, on Sunday, October 18, away to the Rangers.

Days until the next North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham: 90, on Saturday, November 7, at the Emirates Stadium. Just 3 months.

Days until the next East Brunswick vs. Old Bridge Thanksgiving game: 109, on Thursday morning, November 26, at 10:00 AM, at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick. Under 4 months.

Days until the Copa América Centenario begins on U.S. soil: 299, on June 3, 2016. A little under 10 months. The tournament will be between teams from the North American, Central American and Caribbean region (CONCACAF) and South America (CONMEBOL, which is celebrating its 100th Anniversary). Although it's a member of CONCACAF rather than CONMEBOL, the U.S. is the host nation, and thus qualifies automatically, as it does for the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Days until Euro 2016 begins in France: 306, on Friday, June 10.

Days until the next Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 362, on Friday, August 5, 2016. Just under 1 year.

Days until the next World Cup begins in Russia: 1,044, on Friday June 8, 2018. A little under 3 years.