HIGH AND TIGHT
The Yankees today survived the Subway Series with the Mets today with an 8-run 7th inning. And I say survived because of Manager Joe Girardi's obsession with sacrifice bunting.
I posted recently regarding the Yankees "relying" on "too many" HRs, and the fact that there is nothing to the argument of "trying" to hit singles. The statistical run expectancy of having a man on 1st and no outs is .80, a man on 2nd and 1 out .65. That's less of a chance, no?
Today's move with the score tied at 3-3, runners on 1st and 2nd in the 7th inning was Curtis Granderson "successfully" sacrificing the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Thus with one move, Girardi effectively took the bats out of the hands of his 2 hottest hitters, Granderson and Mark Texeira, whom Terry Collins wisely walked intentionally.
Curtis Granderson is 2nd in the Majors in HRs, and hit one today. I don't know what alternative universe Girardi inhabits, but Granderson is exactly the guy you want up in that situation. A-Rod did drive in the go ahead run with his "swinging bunt" single, but a more conventional grounder would have likely ended the threat with a DP.
Aside from Robinson Cano's single to RF, all of the other hits were bloops and dribblers. It's possible that the Yankees "reliance" on HRs has been just bad luck on balls in play, bad hitting, or a combination of both.
This is not the last dead ball year of 1968. Someone please inform Joe Girardi's binder, as it's clearly managing the team on its own.
Skynet is operational in The Bronx.
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