On a day when rumors were swirling about Joe Torre’s job being on the line, Jeff Karstens lasted 0.0 innings and gave up two hits. Coming in, this was probably the worst-case scenario. Torre and the Yanks couldn't afford another blow out and they couldn’t ask their beleaguered pen to pitch all nine.
Joe had no choice but to turn to Kei Igawa, who was apparently sitting in the bull pen catching some rays, judging by the sunglasses he wore out to the mound. Igawa had been passed over for the start today, and maybe he had a chip on his shoulder about it. Kei was dominant in his 6 innings of work, yielding no runs on only two hits, and striking out 6. The only alarming stat was the 4 walks he surrendered, but I can live with that if he isn’t giving up hits to compound the problem.
Bruney, quickly becoming Joe’s favorite middle-/late-inning guy, came in and got Igawa out of a jam in the 7th. Farnsworth only gave up 1 run in the 8th (this qualifies as a successful outing for four-eyes), and Mo came in for the 9th to finally nail down his first save. 3–1 Yanks.
The offense for the Yanks came in the form of a two-run blast by Posada, and a bloop RBI double by the Melk Man.
I missed the game live due to a cable problem, but I was able to catch the archived video on MLB.com. Lucky me. Here’s what I learned from the Joe Buck/Tim McCarver dynamic duo during the game:
Anyway, all is well in Yankee land, for the moment at least.
Player of the Game: Kei Igawa. He may have saved Joe’s job with this one.
If you love McCarver as much as I do, check out this site.
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The Torre rumors are ridiculous. They have yet to field their "A" team for more than six innings this year. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, George!
I don't know if I believe them or not. When I heard the rumors, the first thing I thought was "Who would they get to take his place?"
I guess the fact that my first reaction wasn't "That's ridiculous" says something.
If it does happen, I think Girardi gets the nod. Don't think Donnie's ready yet.
Wow, you think Girardi would be the one? He did a great job in Florida last year, but I would be surprised if they chose him.
Torre has made a few questionable moves this year, but I don't think a change of manager would spark the team.
Have you lost faith in Joe?
No, haven't lost faith in him. And honestly, he's always made moves that I didn't like, and quite often, they've worked out. So that's not it.
But I do think that George is pretty much at his limit. Two consecutive first-round exits from the playoffs following the Red Sox meltdown in '04, it wouldn't shock me if he starts pointing the finger at Joe.
If Joe does leave, I think I'd probably go with either Girardi or Bowa. Bowa's personality would clash with some guys (Abreu, A-Rod, Mussina come to mind) but maybe they need someone to yell at them and get them motivated.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter who manages the team. Until the starting pitching can start getting some length out of their starts this downward spiral is going to continue. If they can string together 3 or 4 quality starts in a row, the ship will be righted.