I went to sleep around the 12th inning or so last night (I tried to stay up, but I was exhausted from a long day), so I missed the Yankees four-run 15th inning, Robinson Cano’s big hit, and the Bombers’ eventual victory. At least I got to see Bartolo Colon’s great night, and I saw Hector Noesi finally make it into a Yankee game after 16 days sitting around the bullpen. It’s cool the Yankees gave him the lineup card for the win.
And best wishes to Chris Dickerson, who had to go to the hospital last night after getting hit in the head by Michael Gonzales.
I was looking at the CBS Sports recap of the game. Looks like every position player made it into the game except for Jorge Posada. And A.J. Burnett (!) pinch ran for Dickerson!
Anyhow, I missed the last few innings. But prior to that, I did see Yankee fans online flipping out over Joe Girardi taking out Colon after eight innings to bring in Mariano Rivera to pitch the ninth.. Twitter and Facebook and Yankee message boards practically blew up with outrage over it, with a lot of fans furious that Colon didn’t get to finish the game. And when Mo coughed up the save, fans were ever more unhappy.
I didn’t second-guess Girardi on this, for several reasons. First of all, it is not like he went to Boone Logan here. Girardi went to The Greatest Closer of All Time to protect a one-run lead. Are Yankee fans now suggesting that they don’t trust in Rivera anymore? If the Yankees can’t count on Mo in such situations, then this team is in big, big trouble.
Second, if Colon had given up a run or two in the ninth, you know that Yankee fans would be griping about Girardi not going to The Greatest Closer of All Time instead.
Third, Colon is no spring chicken — he’s going to be 38 years old this month, and is coming off surgery from last year. Yes, he only threw 87 pitches, but I am okay with Girardi taking him out there.
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Is it just me who did a double-take seeing the headlines about how A-Rod was going to get his hip examined, and thought he was getting his head examined? Just saying.
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