Last night's Yankees-Dodgers game was the best win of the year, even better than seeing Jonathan Papelbon get knocked around in Yankee Stadium last month. What a game!
It was cool to see rookies Colin Curtis and Chad Huffman looking so poised when contributing to that four-run, ninth-inning rally. It was fun to see A-Rod hit his third homer in five games. And it was great to see MVP candidate (there, I said it!) Robinson Cano put the Yankees ahead in the 10th! Then Mariano Rivera continued to flummox Dodgers batters, and LA was left fuming - again - at the end.
I, of course, also really enjoyed seeing Joe Torre's bullpen management helping the Yankees for once. Torre used closer Jonathan Broxton for four outs on Saturday, even though the Dodgers had a five-run lead in that game. He had also used him four times (and had him warm up one time) in the last five days, none of which were save situations. And Torre left Broxton in the game for 48 (!) pitches last night, even though he clearly didn't have it.
Here's the thing. Broxton might be the best closer in the National League. His ERA going into the game was a miniscule 0.83, with him giving up just three runs the entire year. Last night, he gave up four runs, and saw his ERA more than double, shooting up to 1.87. It's not like he's some bum - he just had a bad night, thanks to no small part to misuse by his manager.
Of course, even though I saw plenty of fan comments online last night - from both Yankees and Dodgers fans - about Torre's bullpen mismanagement, the only story I could find in the mainstream media this morning about the issue suggested that the Dodgers need to spend money and buy Torre another bullpen arm. What, so he could ruin that pitcher, too? Good grief.
One other thing - what was up with all the Dodger bunts? Were they trying to test A-Rod's bad hip? Not very classy, Joe. Too bad you never ordered a bunt attempt in Curt Schilling's bloody sock game.
At any rate, the Yankees looked sooooooo happy in the postgame interviews. That must have been some enjoyable flight home!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
4 comments:
Great game, Defintely the best of the year so far. I kept thinking the same thing when Broxton was losing it. Same old Joe. It was great that they took 2 out of 3 (probably could have been a sweep if Burnett had a clue). I'm going to wait until the postseason before I say Robbie Cano has arrived but he's standing on the doorstep.
As a Dodger fan who was at the game last night, it was simply astonishing to watch Torre's decisions during those last couple innings spoiling a hell of an outing for Kershaw. Credit to the Yankees for fighting back.
The LA Times did say that either they needed a new manager or more relievers. But you are right, he generally only trusts one or two and that's really the criticism. Using Broxton on Saturday was the real gaffe.
Dodgers look a lot like the Yankees in the mid-2000's. Maybe good enough to get to the postseason, but very thin where it counts once in the postseason.
I didn't even get into why Torre pulled Kershaw in the first place. He only had thrown 101 pitches. Why not have him at least start the eighth?
And Steven, I totally missed the manager mention. It was kind of buried in their Thanks for pointing it out!
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