Yanks Leave Sweep on the Table

This weekend's series could not have been going better. Friday's game saw Andy Pettitte looking as good as ever over 7 strong innings of work. The Yankees won the game 4-1 on the back of Pettite's strong effort. 

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It was more of the same on Saturday as CC toed the rubber looking to make up for his opening day hiccup. And makeup he did. He pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings in another easy Yankee victory, this time by the score of 6-1. This game also saw continued hot production at the plate from Nick Swisher. Swisher went 2 for 3 with a homer and 3 RBI. The only downside was that Mark Teixeira was scratched from the lineup due to a sore wrist. 

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That brings us to today's finale with the Royals. Joba Chamberlain took the hill for his first start against Royals ace, Gil Meche. Joba pitched was shaky at times but got through six innings of work while allowing only one earned run. He was in line for the win as the Yankees took the lead from the Royals in the 7th, scoring 3 runs in the inning to put the score at 4-3. Damaso Marte started the eighth inning on the mound and breezed through two batters, throwing only 11 pitches. However, he was removed from the game in favor of Jose Veras right hander Billy Butler, and that is when the wheels started to fall off.  Veras walked the only batter he would face. Girardi then brought in Phil Coke to face switch hitter Brayan Pena, who was 0-3 batting left handed during the game. By bringing Coke in, Pena switched to the right side. Coke went on to allow a double, single, and another double consecutively and the Royals plated 3 runs.

In my view this was a case of over managing by our beloved skipper Joe Girardi. Why remove Marte after retiring the first two batters with relative ease? The two batters Marte retired were left handed, but Marte is very capable of getting right handers out. Is he only going to be used as a lefty specialist? Not only did he over manage with Marte, he did so with Veras. OK, it's not Joe's fault Veras walked Butler. However, it is his fault that he brought in Coke to allow Pena to turn around and hit right handed when he was struggling to hit left handed all day long. Why give a struggling switch hitter a fresh start on the other side of the plate when he had shown he was struggling batting left handed? Phil Coke has got terrific stuff, but is he any better than the proven vet, Marte? What makes Marte strictly a lefty specialist and Coke not? I'm going to give Joe the benefit of the doubt. It's still early. But, these are the types of losses that teams look back on in the end of the year saying, "We should have won that game."

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