Baseball thread No. 7: Somebody slip the pinstripers a Mickey

Say hello to the wild-card Rangers and Red Sox, with a huge weekend series in Arlington coming up.

 

Hell, they just picked up Mark Kotsay last week and he's been playing regularly, so this wouldn't surprise me. They can always use help in the OF, so if this is the case, it could pay dividends.

 

i didn't hear if the espn foofs addressed it: hughes had to have the night off for whatever reason. no other way to 'splain coke pitching the 8th, right? ??? ??? ???

 

It makes no sense for Hughes to have the night off though, even though he worked the previous two days. He threw four pitches (one out) on Friday and then five pitches (one out) on Saturday. And he didn't even have to throw on Saturday -- he came in with two outs in the eight and no one on in a three-run game.

And if Girardi's point is that Hughes would have worked three days in a row, well then it's his fault for using Hughes on Saturday in a meaningless situation when he was absolutely needed on Sunday in a perfect situation for him. Hell, he could have used Coke against Ellsbury and then brought in Hughes for only two outs.

Girardi's lucky the Yanks came back and won, otherwise that games on him.

 

Two questons:

Is there a reason Lester can't pitch the 8th or is Francona just that fucking bad a manager?

Is Damon (21 HRs in 102 games at age 35 from a guy whose career high is 24) swallowing hGH in mass quantities?

 

i agree 1,000 percent on all points. even as well as the yanks are playing i believe joe g. sucks balls handling his pitchers. yesterday, for example, it looked like he had to be tied down not to get mariano in a 5-0 game.

tonight had to be hughes in the eighth, unless he told joe g. he wasn't up to it. no other excuse is acceptable.

the babying of these guys must stop. now.

 

I can't wait to see Girardi in October.

 

1 -- Another manager a slave to pitch counts, especially with a young arm.

2 -- 14 of damon's 21 homers have been at the right-field friendly new stadium. he's like bobby murcer at the old place. but i will say many of his homer at home, including tonight's, have seemed pretty legit.

 

With those sunglasses, you won't see him at all.

 

Hughes. supposedly, was not availble because Girardi does not want to use him three games in a row.
He threw nine freaking pitches in the last 2 days!

And I still believe Francona lost this game by pulling Lester after the 7th...oooh, 109 pitches. can't expect out little babies to actually be big league pitchers.

 

He's been pretty consistent about not letting him throw more than 115 pitches this year, only once and that was 120. Only allowed it four times last year (1 being the no-no).

They are still concerned about the jump in innings from '07 to '08 (which many feel led to his slow start this year gave up at least 5 ER in his first 10 starts) and he's on pace to be in that 210 area once again 147 now with about 10 starts left.

But the Bard being the bridge to Papelbon has not been good. Three huge HR allowed this past week.