Saturday, June 2, 2007

One Step Back

If you had been on vacation for April and May somewhere without access to baseball, and froze your television set at the beginning of the bottom of the 7th inning today, you might well have assumed that Boston was the team that was 13.5 games behind in the standings. After Wakefield imploded last night, the Yankees managed to knock out Schilling and survive another 5 run, 5 inning performance from Mussina. They had a one run lead and needed nine outs, with a Hall of Fame closer ready to get at least three of them, but of course, not with this team, not this year.

The seeds were actually planted in yesterday's game, and some of the blame has to rest on the manager. Granted, Torre was ejected yesterday, so it may have been Mattingly actually handling the bullpen, but regardless, I doubt the strategy would have been any different. I have no idea while Kyle Farnsworth and Scott Proctor needed to pitch the 8th and 9th innings, respectively, of a game in which the Yankees had a 6 run lead. If Vizcaino and Villone can't get six outs with a six run lead, they shouldn't be on the team. And Proctor drilling Youkilis last night not only forced Rivera into the game, but probably contributed to the meltdown in the 7th today.

Proctor did his job in the 6th, after Mussina gave up the lead, and that should have been it. The whole purpose of having Mike Myers on this team is to get Ortiz out, and if Torre doesn't have confidence in him to get him out with nobody on base, Myers has to be released. Instead, Proctor was brought out for a second inning, after seemingly pitching in every game this year save the four in which he was suspended. Granted, the defense was horrendous - Abreu can't go near a wall, Cano made another careless feed to Jeter, and Jeter himself made two errors. But Proctor should not have been out there. And certainly not after he intentionally walked Ramirez (after Ortiz doubled) - having him face Youkilis again was just asking for trouble. It should have gone Myers-Bruney-Farnsworth-Rivera. Farnsworth may not have been available, which is maybe why Torre left Proctor in (with Bruney pitching the 8th), but that's only because he pitched yesterday in a meaningless situation. Of course, Farnsworth easily could have blown it, but at least you go with the plan you drew up, rather than continuing to throw Proctor to the wolves. It has to stop, or this team is beyond dead. If confidence is gone in the other relievers, you have to get rid of them. Mussina is at best a 6 inning pitcher, and even if Clemens materializes that is the most you are going to see from him, and probably form Clippard as well. Nine outs from the bullpen three out of every five days is going to require more than Proctor and Rivera. The bullpen must be fixed, and right now. Torre is a great manager (just look at what is going on in Chicago if you want Piniella instead), but this Proctor fixation must end.

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