Another Ugly Loss

The Yankees couldn't get anything going at the plate. Melky Cabrera has turned into another Robinson Cano with a bat. He never could bunt, and it hurt the Yankees in the ninth inning when he grounded into a double play.

Internet minor league phenom Brett Gardner remains hitless in the big leagues this year, but was able to lay down a sacrifice bunt.

Derek Jeter sat out the game, and wasn't even called in to pinch hit in the ninth, when the Pinstripers had a man on first.

To confuse things even more, Girardi pulled Joba Chamberlain after 4.0 innings. Joba was pitching reasonably well, but had a 91 pitch count. In his last outing, the pitch count was well over 100 and it seems as if Girardi wanted to keep it lower today.

Long reliever Dan Giese was brought in again to pitch one inning. That's right, one inning. Girardi clearly doesn't believe in the concept of a long reliever. Except perhaps Ross Ohlendorf, who had a proven track record of failure with long outings.

Does this make sense to anyone? The purpose of a long reliever is especially for those instances when your starter comes out early and you now have a guy who can go three or four innings.

Instead Dave Robertson came in, pitched two solid innings followed by Veras, who threw a scoreless eighth.

Unforunately, Mariano Rivera had a bad night, giving up 3 hits and 1 run and giving Texas the go-ahead run.

Girardi baffles me sometimes with his roster moves (no Derek Jeter) his in game calls (leaving the slumping Melky in in the ninth) and his handling of pitchers. Despite all of that, I expect better from the offense. These guys need to score more runs plain and simple. They're just not getting the job done these days.