DownSwinging.com

As you have noticed, this is not, and hopefully will not be, our first article on Yankees skipper, Joe Girardi. During Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Florida Marlins, Girardi’s former team, Manager Fredi Gonzalez made a double-switch in the 7th inning. Coming out for the Marlins was outfielder Chris Coghlan so that Alejandro De Aza could bat in, pitcher, Renyel Pinto’s place in the order. So De Aza hit for Pinto, and as per Major League rules, Coghlan is done for the game. However, Coghlan returned at the top of the 8th, and after one pitch from, reliever, Leo Nunez, Girardi ran onto the field and made the umpires aware of the infraction. After a short delay, Coghlan was removed for Jeremy Hermida. So far so good. Girardi then claimed that Nunez should have also been removed from the game. This is where Girardi loses me.

There would be no reason for Nunez to be removed from the game. This was a mental error on the part of Fredi Gonzalez, but nothing that requires the entire move to be appealed. Say, Hermida had come in at the beginning of the inning, and everything else had remained the same, that would have sufficiently satiated Girardi’s desire for fair play, I assume. So then why is it that after one meaningless pitch (it was a strike looking to Jeter), is Girardi hellbent on protesting this to league offices? I feel as though Girardi is working the league in such a way that when he really needs a call, he can reference events like the one that transpired on Sunday as an example of when he didn’t get his way.

Let me mention, further, that at this point in the game, the Yankees were down 6-3, so they got a further two runs after the incident. If there had been a situation where Coghlan had made a miraculous catch on that 0-0 pitch, I would have understood Girardi’s position, but right now he is coming off as petulant and wasteful. Joe, how about you take a look at why your team is 4-6 in its last ten, and all of a sudden 4 games back of the streaking Red Sox. This as opposed to making jokes like “But I’d like to keep the two runs I got in the ninth,”. Haha Joe, haha…