I Sure Miss Larry Bowa

Let me start by saying Bobby Meacham should be fired. Did his bonehead call sending Damon to the plate in the third cost the Yankees the game? Maybe. Was it a completely senseless, idiotic move. Definitely. Look at the situation. The Yanks have Johan on the ropes, if Damon holds at third the Yanks have either first and third, or second and third with no outs and Jeter at the plate. Peter Abraham said in his running digest of the game that he thought it was a good call because Damon looked safe on the replay and the Yanks have had trouble scoring runs. I completely disagree. The only way you send Damon in that situation is if he's going to score standing up. If your three, four and five hitters can't drive that run in before Santana gets three outs you've got huge problems. There are times when you have to be extra-aggressive, and there are times when you have to play smart. This one was clearly the latter.

Honestly, I think the problem here isn't that Meacham is an idiot, it's that he isn't good at judging whether to send a runner or not. That's fine. Doesn't mean he's a bad guy, it just means he shouldn't be a third base coach.

That's my first bone to pick from this game. The second is Kyle Farnsworth falling into the typical Kyle Farnsworth pattern. He's learned a cutter. It's made him more effective against lefties. Hence, he's fallen in love with the cutter. He threw three straight to Reyes, the first two he crushed into the seats foul. The third, he kept fair. Farnsworth being Farnsworth, he got beat on the cutter again for the second bomb of the inning.

I'll update this post when the game is over. Six outs to make up three runs, I'm not feeling confident.

UPDATE: Well, they made it interesting. Three shots as the tying run in the bottom of the ninth, more than I thought they'd mount. Still, another disappointing loss in a string of them 7-4 to the Mets.

Player of The Game: Jeter. 3 for 4, HR, 2B and a single (cut down trying to extend it)
Team Record: 20-23
Damon: Nada.