What A Time To Let Melky Swing Away!! Nice Call Joe!

The ending of tonight's Yanks/Rangers game was difficult to swallow. I'm very frustrated. For starters, why wasn't Melky bunting? Melky, mired in an 0-18 slump, and let's be honest, isn't all that good to begin with, gets the swing away sign with the tying run on 1st with no outs in the 9th? And what's Melky do? He watches strike one. Watches strike two. And predictably grounds into a 6-4-3 double play. Why Joe? Why? That move made absolutely no sense. The last thing you want you worst hitter to do in that situation is to swing away. Move the runner over, flip the lineup to the top of the order and get 2 cracks at bringing home the tying run. Horrible call by Girardi. I hope he wises up and at least starts to sit Melky. He's not doing anyone any good and that's taking into account how good his arm is. The Yankees put way too much stock in Melky. Give Gardner a shot. He can't really do any worse.

The second most frustrating thing about tonight's game is watching Posada try to throw out runners. I think they commented on the broadcast that he's thrown out 1 runner since returning from the DL. The Rangers ran all over him. Had his throw to A-Rod been accurate in the 9th they would have had Kinsler at 3rd. The ball beat him by plenty, just on the wrong side of the bag. That swipe of course was the ball game. The Yanks are putting themselves in a tough spot here in the coming days. Do you let Posada catch against the Red Sox and the Rays? Those teams will run all over the Yanks. But can you really start Molina instead? At this stage I don't know what's more important, Jorge's bat or Jorge's lack of an arm? The offense can't score and the pitchers are keeping games close and low scoring. I'm almost inclined to take the arm over the bat. Giving up easy freebies is going to cost them in the long run. At least maybe consider a defensive substitution depending on the scenario.

The bullpen did a stellar job tonight, and that's taking into account Mo's 9th inning. Joba was after 4 and the pen did it's thing, throwing shutout innings and allowing the Yanks to eventually tie things up. Mo pitched alright. Kinsler's double was the only hard hit ball. Everything else was pretty much what you expect from Mo. Bouncer up the middle past the drawn in infield. An infield single and 2 ground balls. Unfortunately, the steal of 3rd did him in. Not much you can do about that.

Joba needs to work on his control. We don't need another Phil Hughes or Ian Kennedy out there right now. Just throw strikes. The main difference between Joba and Hughes/Kennedy is he can strike guys out, thus neutralizing his walks. But walks lead to runs, a high pitch count, and a really short outing. He just needs to trust his stuff and throw strikes and he'll be fine. Same with Hughes. Same with Kennedy.

It's hard to believe that the Yankees are struggling to score runs against the team that's given up the most runs in the majors. The performance of the offense is perplexing. They're better than this. These are 2 games that they shouldn't have lost. Again, frustrating.

Sidney Ponson looks for revenge tomorrow against the team that sent him packing. Use that for motivation Sid. Use that for motivation. The Yanks are facing another pitcher they've never seen before, Luis Mendoza. One would think that the Yanks would have a field day at the plate but I know better. They more often than not struggle against pitchers they've never seen before. I'm not liking our chances but I'm hoping to be surprised.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie