It was inevitable that Joba Chamberlain's first start of the season getting blown by the bullpen wouldn't escape the notice of the Joba to the bullpen brigade. So it was no surprise to crack open, er, click on the New York Post Monday morning and find Mike Vaccaro's column.
Vaccaro admits that Chamberlain threw a quality start, which would have looked even better if the right side of his infield was capable of picking up a ground ball. Still, though, that darned eighth inning got in the way because Joba wasn't there to nail things down.
But we also saw what the Yankees are missing without Joba the Automatic, too, because what we really saw in the eighth inning from three different pitchers trying to do what Joba used to do was something eerily reminiscent of what happened to the Mets so often last year. From 4-3 up to 6-4 down, in half an eyeblink.
Jose Veras and Phil Coke were terrible in the eighth inning yesterday, but no member of the Yankees was worse than Joe Girardi. The manager went to Brian Bruney in the seventh and got three quick outs, and then he tabbed the lefty Damaso Marte for the eighth and got two more quick ones. The Royals then pinch-hit right-handed hitting Billy Butler and Girardi pulled Marte for Veras, who walked Butler and then made way for Coke who threw gasoline and dropped a match.
Girardi deserves all the blame, though. He pulled Marte, a $4 million a year set-up man, with two outs and no one on base in the eighth inning of a one-run game to go to a worse pitcher after he'd already used Bruney. Mariano Rivera would be the only reasonable choice if he wanted Marte out, but there was no reason to pull Marte. After Butler came the weak-hitting underbelly of the Royals lineup so there was no reason why Marte couldn't have been careful with Butler and remained in the game.
Girardi managed like it was impossible for a lefty to face a righty under any circumstances, which runs counter to the reason why the team gave Marte a multi-year contract in the first place. Heck, there wasn't any reason to pull Bruney entering the eighth, except for using the tired, thoughtless managerial textbook that's not designed to make the most use of your talented players.
You could use Sunday's game as an argument that Chamberlain should be in the bullpen. The crux of that argument, however, is that Girardi's too dumb to be an effective manager. No matter how you use Chamberlain, that would seem to be a bigger stumbling block.
Sports
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
