Yanks Move One Step To Closer To Golfing In October

Aaargh. I'm trying to think of the perfect adjective to sum up how I feel right now but I'm drawing a blank. But every Yankee fan right now has to be feeling the same way, so you know where I'm coming from. This series with the Twins is pretty big. The Twins started the day 3 games ahead of the Yankees in the wild card standings and what do the Yankees do? They get shut out. They were just pitiful tonight and it all falls on the shoulders of Joe Girardi.

I am so sick of Joe Girardi trying to live off the mentality that you need to have as many righties in a lineup against lefties as you possibly can. Girardi is obviously a big lefty/righty guy and that mentality is a proving to be a huge mistake. It burned them the other day when he pinch ran Pudge and pinch hit Melky. It burned them tonight by sitting Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi. John Flaherty made a sweet comment on the broadcast tonight that there are only about 45 games left and you have to put your best lineup on the field every night. Johnny Damon is leading the league in batting average. He should definitely have been in the lineup. Jason Giambi's OPS against LHPs is .919. He should have been in the lineup. Instead we have Justin Christian (0-4), Melky Cabrera (0-3 with a rally killing DP), and Richie Sexson (0-2 w/1 BB). Smart move Joe. Smart move. Now I can see maybe sitting Damon and Giambi against a lefty if the pitcher shuts down lefties, but that's not the case with Glen Perkins. Coming into tonight's game, lefties were hitting .338 against Perkins. It's not as if he's a lefty killer. What's even worse is the 2 Yankee lefties, Abreu and Cano, accounted for 3 of the Yankees 4 hits, combining to go 3 for 6 with 1 walk. Again, smart move Joe. Smart move.

So with the loss the Yankees now find themselves 3.5 back of the Twins. The Red Sox are 3 defensive outs away from beating the White Sox. If that score holds up, the Yanks are 5 back of Boston. These are the game the Yankees have to win. And to do that they need the best team on the field every day. It's gut check time and they can't be trucking out a weak lineup like they did tonight. Terrible job Joe. Just terrible.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie