Of course, those are the famous words of Joe Girardi, former Yankee manager, and probably someone who would not have sent Severino back out to the mound in the 4th inning. The evidence to SU was clear: his velocity was way down on the fastball; he was throwing almost no sliders; and there were few swings and misses. Combine that with all of the hard hit balls to the warning track, and maybe, just maybe he was not on last night.
Did he get to the bullpen too late for warm-ups? Everyone denies it but SU agrees with Ron Darling – something happened there. SU’s theory is that Kevin Brown actually got into his body in the clubhouse and forced him to pitch like Brown did in game 7 in 2004. But he also expended a lot of energy in the Wild Card game and it’s possible that after a long season, his arm and body did not respond in time. Severino’s post-season numbers are bad – time will tell if he can overcome that or if he becomes David Price. SU will not give up on him.
Boone blew that decision but in a 16-1 game, come on. It’s a footnote. Lance Lynn is a mediocre pitcher who was due for a bad outing. Green was not good in game 1 and same last night. The Yankees have a rested bullpen for tonight of their top line guys and you hope CC gives you 5 innings. But a few points:
- Did you see the Red Sox steal 2nd base up 10-0? And did you see a batter hit on a 3-0 count up 10-0? Hmmm. No doubt a reflection of Alex Cora. CC takes not of those things. Something to watch for tonight. You don’t want to put extra runners on but you can also fire up your team by hitting someone. Hey, it’s baseball. It’s all about pettiness.
- Too many right-handed hitters in the Yankee line-up as pointed out by SU time and time again. Didi is not healthy – no power in his hands with that injury. Word is Neil Walker may start tonight at 3rd base. If you do that, then put Stanton in the outfield and DH Andujar. I am telling you McCutchen, aside from the occasional walk, is done. SU would much rather have Andujar’s bat in the line up and why do you panic now in the playoffs?
- There is no truth to the story that Angel Hernandez got into the wrong car after the game to go back to his hotel. Word is the driver called into MLB Advanced Media to confirm that it was the right car and not the one next to it. Seriously: that was embarrassing. Truth be told, the first 3 calls were very close but the DP was obvious. But no worries: he will be behind the plate tonight. What could go wrong?
SU’s goal at the start of the playoffs was not to be embarrassed and humiliated against Boston. Well, that was embarrassing last night. The problem is they will roll out too many right handed hitters again tonight. However, Hicks should be back.
Anyone feeling confident in Yankeeland?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Yes, Boston was due for a good hitter’s outing. Hopefully, they got it out of their system. Boone should have taken Severino out in the 2nd inning as he was hit hard each time. The game was still manageable at that time. Then again he should have been lifted after 4 innings as he continued to be smacked around throughout the lineup. What was Boone thinking of? Even after the first batter in the 5th it was so so so obvious. Waiting until there was bases loaded with Mookie up to make the change was completely asinine.
So, like you have said many times over the years when humiliated like that… turn the page and let’s win it tonight. Go about your business as a professional player.
One more thing I just have to get off my chest…. we saw Sanchez take pitches right down Broadway and we saw him swing at balls either in the dirt of starting out on the outside corner at best and curve 2 feet off the plate. Yes, he can “wreck” a game like he did in game 2 but is that performance few and far between? Yesterdays approach at the plate was more like someone hitting 180.
Yankees 5 Red Sox 4 tonite. I’ve got my mitt and ready to catch a few Sanchez pulled foul balls just to the left of the left field pole…. before hitting a home run….. I hope….. Let Us Pray….
Yup, that was as ugly as it gets. Turn the page, score first on Porcello, get 4 or 5 out of CC, bring in the big 4 relievers and head to Boston for an anyone can win 5th game. Confident, No! Hopeful, Yes!
Severino was definitely bad but I’m not sure what Boone’s options were. If he’s going to the bullpen in the 3rd inning, how exactly does that play out? At some point you end up having to use the relievers he used and they weren’t all that good either. The only thing he did right was minimize the damage to the bullpen for games 4 and 5.
The Yankees have a lot of key contributors that just aren’t right including Severino, Gregorius, Chapman and Hicks. One approach is to keep those guys out of the game. But another is to see what your star players can do, even at 80%. 50%? Yes, they have shown their weakness. But there are examples of playoff heroics from damaged players. (Kurt Schilling? Kirk Gibson?)
Not sure if it mattered but how does the starting pitcher not know when the game is going to start? This is the kind of thing we expect from the Mets.
Unless it would help motivate CC, he should be focused on getting outs. We saw yesterday that the Red Sox are pretty good at moving runners around the bases…whether they hit the ball hard or not.
CC should throw the first pitch of the game directly into the Boston dugout at Cora- note that after he had Benitendi steal with a 10-0 lead he pinch hit for him his next time up.
Told you Cora is a punk!