This is a Little Less Pleasant

"Have they ever lost before?"
"Basketball? No, they sure haven't."
"It just feels wrong, that's all."
"Maybe that's where they get that saying, 'You can't win 'em all.'"
"That's a good point, Ralph. They do have that saying."
-Pleasantville

It feels weird right now. The Yankees were 5-0 coming into this Game 3 and everything seemed to be going their way. They had a 3-0 lead going into the 5th inning. Even after Yankee-killer Howie Kendrick hit a solo home-run in the 5th, the Yankees escaped with a 3-1 lead. In the regular season they were 66-4 (.943) when entering the 6th inning with a lead.

They had two outs in the 6th inning. If they escaped the inning, and go to the 7th with the lead, they seem to be in control. During the regular season they were 71-2 (.973) when they entered the 7th inning with the lead. Andy Pettitte had a 2-2 count on Vladamir Guerrero with two outs and Bobby Abreu on first after his first hit of the ALCS. Vlad had been doubted in Boston before he broke out with the game-winning hit against the Red Sox in Game 3 of the ALDS. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, the ultimate jinxers talked about how feeble Vlad had looked all postseason and talking about the last time he hit a home run. Joe Girardi went to the mound to meet with Jorge Posada and Pettitte. The very next pitch Vlad smacked over the leftfield wall to tie the game.

The Yankees hitting was left to only solo home runs and their struggles with RISP continued. The Yankees last hit with scoring position was in the 6th inning of Game 1. The Yankees were 3-12 in that game. They were 0-8 in Game 2 and 0-8 again in Game 3. That's 26 innings without a hit with RISP and 3 for 28 overall. They've left 51 men on base in 3 games, including 7 for Melky Cabrera alone today (the Yankees may really want to think about putting Brett Gardner out there at some point...though maybe not against Kazmir).

Now I don't know if the Yankees would have ever won this game because of that lack of hitting with RISP but Joe Girardi's maneuvering didn't help. He pinch hit Jerry Hairston, Jr. for Brett Gardner (who had run for Hideki Matsui) against Brian Fuentes, although they are about equal hitters. Then Girardi inexplicably decided to vacate the DH slot to put Hairston in for Johnny Damon with one out in a situation that he thought he needed a better outfield arm even though both possess poor outfield arms (and wouldn't Gardner's arm have been preferential in that situation anyways. Then Girardi had to pinch hit Fransisco Cervelli for Mariano Rivera because of the vacated DH slot. That left an inexperienced Hairston in leftfield on the game winning hit by Jeff Mathis. Is your head hurting yet?

It's about to get worse

His moves with his pitchers were even more puzzling. He brought in lefty specialist Damaso Marte who got out switch hitter Chone Figgins on one pitch. So in the next inning, instead of bringing Marte back out to face the one lefty in the Angels' lineup, Abreu, he instead brought in another lefty reliever, Phil Coke to face Abreu. Then, instead of starting Rivera in the bottom of the 10th, he decided to wait until there was a runner on second to bring him in. Rivera was able to get out of that inning, and instead of bringing him out for a second inning, they pitch hit for him with two outs and brought in David Robertson. David Robertson got two quick outs. Then Joe Girardi quickly went to a match-up binder he had handy. And what does Girardi decide to do? Go with Alfredo Aceves, who promptly loses the game. Even Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were questioning that call.

And why did he do that? Bryan Hoch of Bombers Beat asked that same question and here was the explanation:

Q. Can you take us through taking Mariano out and Robertson out, and what your thought process was?

JOE GIRARDI: Yeah, we thought we had Mo for an inning. I didn't feel that I could stretch him out any further than that in that situation because of what we did the other day with him. So he had that inning, and that was it. As far as Robertson, we like the match up with Ace better, the two guys. And it didn't work.

Q. Why'd you like the match up with Aceves and Mathis?

JOE GIRARDI: It's just different kind of stuff against those hitters. And we have all the match ups, and all the scouting reports, and we felt that, you know, it was a better match up for us.

Not exactly a great, inspiring explanation from the Yankees' skipper. I praised his use of his bench and bullpen in Game 2 but I think Joe Girardi made Game 3 harder than it needed to be and may have managed the Yankees out of a win. Now the Yankees got lucky that the game didn't end earlier. Bobby Abreu had a huge baserunning gaffe and the Angels blew a 1st and 3rd and no one out chance in the Bottom of the 10th. But this was a very winnable game. Especially after Derek Jeter led off with a home run, Alex Rodriguez hit a monster shot and Johnny Damon smacked one out. Jorge Posada hit a big home run to tie it when an ineffective Joba Chamberlain gave up a run.

It's true that the Yankees were probably not going to win them all, but it just feels weird to see them on the other side of a come-from-behind, walk-off win. Hopefully the hefty lefty can get them back on track in Game 4 and make things a bit more "pleasant".