The Genius Maker #118

I hate when Rivera doesn't get it done. I am not going to go into all the missed opportunities or the big hit by ARod in the 8th, but I do want to discuss Girardi's use of Mariano and the bullpen. I think we can all say that Girardi is MUCH better with the pen than Torre. However, I have no idea why he would throw Rivera out there after throwing 2 innings the night before. Yes, you want to win, but 1) the less Texas sees him the better for the playoffs and 2) he is old enough where you don't burn him out unnecessarily. Rivera had pitch more than 1 inning 3 times this year and every time he had at least the next day off. The Yanks bullpen was rested enough even though they had a long game the night before. You still had Joba, but even if you didn't use Joba, Wood threw only 9 pitches and Albadejo only threw to one batter. You could have easily gotten through the 9th with Wood.

Pre game I heard two things from Girardi that made me shake my head. One was the BS, once again, Girardi spewed about giving Jeter a day off only because it was a long game the night before and not because of his slump. Joe, what is wrong with saying, yesterday was a real long game and I want to give Jeter a rest and this will also allow him to clear his head and be the player we all know he is??? Is it that hard to not lie to us Joe? The 2nd thing that I thought was silly was the way Joe was posturing about how Rivera only threw 23 pitches and might be available because that was a small amount. Joe, Rivera only throws that many pitches about 1 in every 10 outings and not once did he come back and pitch the next day...STUPID...this was the case where the Genius maker couldn't bail out him manager and hopefully, he didn't get hurt in the process.

I also want to point out that I would really like to win the division because I don't want to play Texas in a 5 game series where we will get Wilson and Lee for 80% of the games (updated to point out that Texas is 5 games behind Minnesota who has been red hot so teh WC will play Minnesota). The Yanks have been much better at home and the splits matter. Could we still beat them...of course, but Texas knows they can play with us (and beat us) without their best player in their lineup...Hopefully our future starting pitcher will continue to struggle in Texas.