Look--yes, the "plan" was for Joba to throw 50-60 pitches today. Yes, he did that. No, he didn't do it all in-game. And no, I don't think Girardi is a bad manager for making the decision. The only reason I wasn't happy to see Mo was because he pitched two innings last night; luckily, my fears were unnecessary. But Joe said it properly in his postgame interview: if it's a save, Mariano will pitch. That plan supersedes all others. Now, if Andy wasn't sharp, we would have seen more from Joba. But he was, so things were altered a little. But it isn't life or death. And getting upset at Girardi because he didn't put Joba in yesterday's debacle is silly, because I doubt he would have prevented that from happening. You can't manage the past!
In short, all is good in Yankee Universe. We're 1 above .500, tomorrow's an off-day, and Joba Chamberlain may see his first start on Monday against...
...The Minnesota Twins. Tonight started out looking a lot worse for the Twiks--Livan Hernandez was supbar to say the least, giving up 6 runs over as many innings. Zack Greinke somehow held the offense to three runs over his 8 IP. And, in the 9th, the Twins got one on with two outs. The Kansas City losing streak looked like it was coming to an end.
But, after all, KC is the one annually bad team that doesn't think it's good this year. A wild pitch and three singles brought the score to 8-5, which set up a 3-run homer from Craig Monroe to tie the game. Brilliant. A trio of Twins relivers kept the tie in the bottom of the inning, and Justin Morneau took the first pitch he saw in the 10th out of the park. Joe Nathan redeemed himself by closing it up, and just like that, the Twins were two over .500 and the Royals had lost 10 in a row. Oops.
(Could the 2008 Yankees stage a 5-run rally in the 9th inning on the road with 2 outs? Not a chance...)
On Friday, my two teams go head-to-head. It should be interesting, to say the least. I'll do a pitching matchup analysis tomorrow.
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The big political news of the day is all about Scott McClellan's new book. The former White House press secretary, who definitely came off as one of Bush's crook buddies, "produced a memoir damning of his old boss on nearly every level — from too much secrecy to a less-than-honest selling of the war to a lack of personal candor and an unwillingness to admit mistakes." Bush calls him disgruntled. Rove says it must have been written by a left-wing blogger. Upset that someone would turn on you, eh Bush Admin?
None of this information is new, of course. This is just the first time it's been spoken on by an insider. What needs to happen is this: now that there's solid evidence of the Bush crimes, Congress needs to take some actions. I'm not necessarily taking impeachment, but some hearings should be held; these actions should NOT go by without some checks-and-balances. Because really, if the House can waste its time interrogating Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, it and the Senate can bring in McClellen and Bush to determine what needs to be done about their horrible, deceptive, and costly deeds.
Also, on the campaign trail, DNC laywers say, at best, only half of the delegations from MI and FL can be seated. As you know, I'm against changing the rules ex post facto at ALL, but half is what they should have done to begin with. The problem, of course, is how they'll be allocated. Well, since the laywers showed some intelligence, I'm assuming that Hillary WON'T get her wish of having them all go to her (is the woman insane? Oh wait...). Let's stay tuned for the final decision on the 31st.
