Yankees and Girardi take one-game hit with big picture in mind
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Some nights, you walk away from a ballgame muttering, “What the hell was (your manager) doing?!”
No such mystery existed Wednesday night at Angel Stadium. If you didn’t know precisely what Joe Girardi was doing with his Yankees, then you might be a football fan.
Girardi gave this one away by design. He took the loss, 7-5 to the Angels — after his club jumped out to a 4-0, first-inning advantage — in the hopes of winning the long game.
We’ll naturally need time to see if he and the Yankees prevail in the bigger goal. Yet as we have learned in particular from looking across town (back in New York, not here in Southern California) to the Mets’ bullpen woes, there’s something to be said for taking a short-term hit. Especially because the day’s biggest news, CC Sabathia’s Grade 2 left hamstring strain, likely means that the Yankees will be leaning even more on their relief corps.
“I can’t hurt guys,” Girardi said after the game, in explaining why he threw rookie Ronald Herrera to the wolves in the young man’s major-league debut.
Herrera went to bed Tuesday night in Hartford, Conn., where his Double-A Trenton Thunder played. He received a 3:30 wakeup call from manager Bobby Mitchell instructing him of his two-level promotion to the big leagues. Two flights (from Hartford to Philadelphia and from Philly to Los Angeles) and an annoying drive (from L.A. to Anaheim) later, he reported for duty with every expectation that he would help out a bullpen that Girardi described before the game as “fried.”
So after Michael Pineda grinded through an ugly beginning to give the Yankees six innings, and with the game tied at 5-5, Girardi turned to the 22-year-old Herrera for a most high-leverage introduction to the big time.
“That’s really what I had,” Girardi said. “Obviously, we’ll get some guys tomorrow. But that’s what it was today.”
Thanks to Tuesday night’s 11-inning loss to the Angels in which Sabathia departed after the fourth and a Sunday “bullpen day” victory over the Orioles in which starter Chad Green recorded only six outs, Girardi felt compelled to rest Green (who could start Saturday in Oakland as Sabathia’s replacement) Jonathan Holder, Chasen Shreve and Adam Warren. He might have turned to Tyler Clippard, who pitched the prior two nights, if the Yankees held a lead in the eighth, Girardi said. And closer Dellin Betances, who didn’t pitch but did warm up Tuesday, would’ve closed.
“I can’t ask Dellin to give me nine outs,” Girardi said. “Maybe it was 2015 or ‘14, I could’ve done that.”
Into the fire Herrera jumped. “I wasn’t really thinking about that,” he insisted, through an interpreter, of the situation. He retired his first batter Albert Pujols as well as Yunel Escobar before walking Luis Valbuena and serving up the game-losing homer to Andrelton Simmons.
“At the beginning, I was very happy to get the call and be here,” Herrera said of his longest day. “At the same time, I’m now sad because I got the losing record. Mixed emotions.”
The Yankees (38-25), who saw their American League East lead over the surging Red Sox (37-28) drop to two games overall and three in the loss column, can spin it that their relievers will be better prepared for action now. That Herrera got his feet wet. And, just as important, that Pineda showed that he can hang in there on a night when he lacks his best stuff.
“We always learn from the bad games,” said Pineda, who gave up five runs over the first three innings and then rebounded with three shutout innings. “Tonight was a really tough game for me, but I’m there because I had really good stuff, keeping my head up, keep fighting, giving an opportunity to my team. It’s good.”
This was one for the marathon, a sign of respect for the length of the baseball season. Whether it works only partly matters. You know what Girardi was doing. Even if you don’t agree with it, you get it. Now you see whether this approach gets the Yankees what they really want in the long run.