yankees228

The Rangers have a relatively easy home stand coming up (3 vs. SEA and 3 vs. OAK). They probably have to go 5-1 there, assuming the Red Sox keep winning at a reasonable pace.

Nadal did look great last night though. He struggled in the first set, but his physical condition appears to be top notch. I might be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that anyone besides Federer would be able to outlast him in a best of five set match.

Bruney has had control problems his entire career. He had six good outings at the beginning of the year. Stop overstating what he has accomplished. I'm not a Brian Bruney fan, but I've accepted that he is going to be used. However, he really needs to come into the game with nobody on base. It is foolish to bring in a guy with poor control with men on base. As for Gaudin, he has not been properly stretched out. Up until his last start he outings were very sporadic. If you go by his only two starts as a Yankee he ran out of gas around the 70 pitch mark. He was awful against the three guys he faced in the seventh. Also, he was excellent for the first three innings, but he did get a little bit lucky in the fourth, fifth, and sixth. In the fourth, after walking the second batter (Zobrist) he went to 3-2 on Burrell. He threw a pitch that was designed to be on the outside corner, but ran back over the inside corner. He got lucky that he got the strike call with the catcher having to move his glove so far, and he got lucky that Maddon decided to send Zobrist (pretty dumb considering the batter). Then, in the fifth, he got another lucky double play on a ball that was lined back to him. I give him credit for making a nice fielding play, but he got lucky that a hard ball was hit right at a fielder. And, in the sixth, the Rays gave him an out on the base paths with their best hitter up. Gaudin was very good tonight, but he did not cruise through his final three innings like he did in the first three.

Girardi really needs to make better decisions. He has to recognize that it was the incorrect move to try to push his luck with Gaudin against the heart of the order in the seventh. He left him in at least two batters too long. That easily could have ended up costing them the game. Also, it's one thing to bring Bruney in the game with nobody on base, but it makes no sense to bring a guy in with runners on base who struggles with control. These are the kind of things that will kill a team in the playoffs against better competition.

That could have all been avoided if they hadn't let Gaudin face those three batters in the seventh. Also, pretty bad job by Maddon. He shouldn't have waited till their were two outs to go to Aybar. He should have went to him when he pinch hit Kapler with first and second and nobody out.

This is incredible. It's as if Girardi doesn't know his players strengths and weaknesses. It's one thing to go to Bruney at all, even though he has no control. It's another thing to go to him with two men on. Just brilliant Joe, bring in the guy with no control with runners on base. Real smart.

The Yankees should do what the Devils do and fire their manager even though they're headed towards the playoffs.

I couldn't agree more. He absolutely sucks. They never should have let Torre go. I used to try to defend Girardi earlier this year, but it just isn't possible anymore. He is awful.

Wow, every single game Joe Girardi seems to do something that makes absolutely no sense. EDIT: Joe Girardi is horrible. Absolutely horrible. There is just nothing else to say at this point.

David Price looks fantastic.

Using his past starts as a guideline, Girardi would be smart to take out Gaudin very soon.

I'm not sure I would say that Buchholz has better velocity. Here are their numbers from their most recent starts: Chamberlain: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/index.php?month=9&day=4&year=2009&game=gid_2009_09_04_nyamlb_tormlb_1%2F&pitchSel=501955.xml&prevGame=gid_2009_09_04_nyamlb_tormlb_1%2F&prevDate=94 Buchholz: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/index.php?month=9&day=3&year=2009&game=gid_2009_09_03_bosmlb_tbamlb_1%2F&pitchSel=453329.xml&prevGame=gid_2009_09_03_bosmlb_tbamlb_1%2F&prevDate=93 Anyway, in terms of who is better right now, I would give the nod to Buchholz. The obvious problem with Joba at the moment is that he has such poor control. The other thing is that he is really only a two pitch pitcher right now. His curve, right now, is decent, but he really doesn't go to it that much. He change, on the other hand, is pretty bad.

Mitre was not as bad as his final line. I agree with you. However, he pitched poorly. He left a lot of pitches up in the strike zone and he got hammered. His defense hurt him, but he still did not pitch well.

He gave up 11 hits and 2 walks in only 4.1 innings pitched. You can slice that any way you want, but that is not very good. His defense really let him down, and made his outing worse than it was, but he still did not pitch well. Don't forget that 9 of the 11 runs he allowed were earned. Also, it doesn't matter whether it was the 5th inning of the 7th inning when he hit that wall. As a starting pitcher, you cannot hit a wall at 80 pitches. Also, there is not a single starting pitcher who consistently has 80 pitches in the 7th inning, for whatever that is worth. However, I'll admit that part of him hitting that wall is not his fault, because he has not been properly stretched out.

What if the Angels win their remaining four games against the Yankees, which is entirely possible, especially considering three of them are out in Anaheim?

Awful, awful game all the way around. Too many things to even talk about. The loss, by itself, doesn't really concern me. Neither does Mitre's subpar performance. Both of those things are relatively insignificant in the long run. However, the terrible defense is a concern, and something that is beginning to become a trend.