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After the game on Friday night, I wrote that Joe Girardi made a very good move by allowing Chien-Ming Wang to pitch a complete game against Boston in the opening game of the series. This move gave Wang confidence in that he is the Yankees true ace and helped save a recently overworked bullpen. But, the balance of the weekend was not very good for the new Yankee skipper.

The Yankee bullpen had been overworked because before the Red Sox series, Girardi made a weird decision not to start Ian Kennedy during a rainy beginning in Kansas City, and was forced to use his pen for most of that game. Plus, Kennedy (tonight's starer in Tampa), Mike Mussina and Phil Hughes have been less than stellar this season, averaging less than 5 innings in their 8 combined starts.

On Saturday, pitching to Manny or not pitching to Manny has been discussed thoroughly and, although Ramirez should have been walked in that two-out, 2nd and 3rd situation, once the decision has been made to pitch to Manny - Mussina can not throw the ball over the middle of the plate to Ramirez.  

Mussina did the same thing in his first start against the Toronto Blue Jays. After being pinched a little during a two-out walk to Alex Rios in the 3rd inning, Mussina left a fat curveball over the middle of the plate to Vernon Wells, who belted a 2 run homer.

Imagine being only two pitches away from a 3-0 record.

Mike Mussina has to make better two out pitches to those type of hitters if he wants to stay in the rotation.

But, it was the 8^th inning of Sunday night's Yankee-Red Sox clash that clinched the weekend for Girardi.

Jason Giambi led off with a home run (his second of the series) and Yankee starting catcher Jose Molina (his fifth straight start) singled sharply to left field, his second hit of the game. Jorge Posada was again limited to the DH spot because he has a sore shoulder and cannot throw well. When Molina ran off the field after that single last night for a pinch runner, I was thinking that Posada was going to have to catch (unless the Yanks put emergency catcher Morgan Ensberg back there) but then either way no potential base stealers could have been thrown out. And with Crisp, Lugo, Ellsbury and Pedroia coming up in the bottom of the inning, you really need to keep these speedy guys off base, fearing the Red Sox could get a cheap run or two in the bottom of the inning. Joe Girardi's choice of Kyle Farnsworth is the last guy you would want in that spot. He allows too many base runners and has a slow delivery to first.

Then after Melky's single, why didn't Damon then bunt to move up the tying runs into scoring position? The Sox had just brought in a submarine LH reliever to face Damon. The Yanks have been using the bunt all season! Why not at that point! Especially when you know Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon were not going to be used in the game. With Cano, Abreu and Arod coming up, there would be a decent chance to tie the game.

Damon, of course, hit into the double play. It was only then that the duo of John Miller and Joe Morgan finally get off their Mitchell report garbage (after Giambi's HR) and began talking about the game again.

Since the offensive part of Girardi's scheme did not go well in the top of the 8th, the Yanks should have Joba or Mariano throw the 8th inning to try and keep it a two run game. Once again, bringing Farnsworth in was the wrong move.

True to form, Crisp singled on the first pitch and promptly stole second base - without a Posada throw. Granted Posada cannot throw, but Crisp had a huge jump on the ineffective Farnsworth. Then, with Crisp on third base and one out, the Yanks had the infield in and were pitching Ellsbury inside with hard stuff. Hard inside fastballs cause weak ground balls or even weaker pop ups and fly balls. Then why weren't the Yankee LF and CF in closer to cut off any short fly balls - the likely result of Ellsbury going after a hard, inside fastball? The next play was a short fly ball to CF where Melky caught the ball but had not opportunity to throw out the speedy Crisp. If Melky and Damon (now in LF) were playing more towards the infield, Melky would have caught the ball much easier and could have kept Crisp at third base.

Good move by Girardi on Friday night by keeping Wang in for the complete game, but his moves the rest of the series were head scratching. Of course, Girardi needed to walk Manny on Saturday, but Girardi needed to bunt Damon last night to try and tie the game. He also had terrible moves on defense in the bottom of the 8th in trying to keep the game close. The well rested Joba and Rivera were better options than Farnsworthless.