Yankees – Page 188 – Keefe To The City

Aug 1, 2014

The Rivalry Continues to Unravel

The Yankees and Red Sox haven’t played a meaningful summer series in a while, so I decided to talk to Mike Hurley of CBS Boston about the fading rivalry.

On Friday morning on YES, the July 1, 2004 game between the Yankees and Red Sox was playing on Yankees Classics (otherwise known as the Derek Jeter-goes-diving-into-the-stands game). That game happened just over 10 years ago and I can still remember where I was when watching it, having attended the Yankees’ win over the Red Sox the night before. But as the rivalry half-heartedly coasts through another season, it makes me realize how far removed we are from the battles of 2003 and 2004, and even 2005, 2006 and 2007. If I wasn’t going to be at Fenway Park this weekend, there’s no chance that 10 years from now in 2024 I would remember where I was for an August Yankees-Red Sox game.

With the Yankees still fighting for a playoff berth and the Red Sox trading off nearly their entire team and completey changing their roster for the second time in two years, I emailed Mike Hurley of CBS Boston because that’s what I do when the Yankees and Red Sox play each other.

Keefe: Nine months ago the Red Sox completed the most improbable season in major sports history by winning a World Series they had no business winning. The real Impossible Dream season of 2013 was sandwiched between a 93-loss 2012 season and what might be another 93-loss season in 2014.

Aside from Jacoby Ellsbury signing with the Yankees and Jarrod Saltalamacchia signing with the Marlins (but who cares?) the Red Sox returned basically the same team, position-player wise in 2014 and the same rotation. But since last week the Red Sox have now traded Jake Peavy, Felix Doubront, Jon Lester, Jonny Gomes and John Lackey. All three pitchers responsible for the four wins in the World Series are gone.

Is this August 2012 all over again? Are the Red Sox going to hit a 16-team NFL parlay in 2015 and win the World Series again?

Hurley: Wow, a presumptuous Neil Keefe just fires off an email on trade deadline day and expects me to have the time to respond. So bold. So typically Neil.

The answer to your question is yes, obviously the Red Sox are going to win the World Series in 2015 behind Yoenis Cespedes and Joe Kelly. Don’t worry about the starting rotation — starting pitchers aren’t important! That’s the Red Sox’ new philosophy, I guess. Either that, or they really like their pitching prospects. We’ll see at least one of them this weekend against New York.

Keefe: To be honest, I didn’t think you would answer. I thought you would be too upset about the Red Sox trading off every player on their team including their 30-year-old, left-handed ace and franchise staple. Then I remembered that you don’t care about the Red Sox the way you used to and that’s because of the ownership group.

Sure, you make jokes from time to time about my love for Derek Jeter, but like we have talked about countless times, he has been the shortstop of the Yankees for basically our entire we-can-understand-baseball lives. The Red Sox don’t have that player. They haven’t had that player in a long, long time. For any Red Sox fan that’s a child to about mid-to-late 30s, they haven’t had that player. Roger Clemens left. Mo Vaughn left. Nomar was traded. The closest thing I guess would be David Ortiz, who started his career with the Twins, but Jon Lester had a chance to be that guy.

I don’t get why Lester and the Red Sox couldn’t come to an agreement and I’m guessing that it had to do with the team and not the player. The Red Sox were adamant about not wanting to pay pitchers who were 30-plus years of age, but when it came to their ace and a two-time World Series champion, you would think they would have made an exception. The Red Sox have a bajillion dollars and could have afforded to blow some money on a guy that helped bring them two titles in seven years. But money is also why they didn’t do because they know that even Lester were to be traded (which he was) and signs elsewhere in the winter, they are still going make money. People in Boston aren’t going to stop going to Red Sox games and buying merchandise and singing “Sweet Caroline” whether Lester is on the team or not. This ownership group has taken so many negative PR hits over the years and shrugged them off only to make more and more money and sell more and more Fenway Park bricks that they must have thought, “What’s another bad story about us?”

Please tell me you still have a soul and are upset that Lester isn’t going to be a lifetime Red Sox. Please don’t tell me some BS about how it’s a business and they got a good return for him.

Hurley: Well I think you’re wrong to say that Red Sox fans are going to keep filling Fenway Park and keep spending money by the buckets. It’s true that Fenway is still jammed full of idiots screaming “SWEET CAROLINE!!!” in the middle of the eighth inning when the Sox are getting trounced by a sorry-ass team like the Cubs. Yes, that happens. But what’s happened over the past few years is that the Red Sox are getting less and less cool.

You’re aware that I turned 21 in 2007, so I obviously started going to bars on a regular basis that year. You’ll also recall that the Red Sox won the World Series that year. The Red Sox were on top of the world. Everywhere you looked, the Red Sox were there — on hats, shirts, TVs, tattoos, everything. They owned the region.

From 2007-2011, you could not find one television in a bar NOT tuned to the Red Sox in the Boston area.

But in the past few years, I’ve been in a lot of bars and restaurants during Red Sox games, and the TV hasn’t been showing the game. It’s been showing random things — nothing, really — and nobody in the bar seems to care. This may seem like a small thing, but I think it’s pretty indicative of the Red Sox’ current state in the area. They’re just not hot anymore.

And, as you point out, they’re shipping away a guy who grew up with the organization, won two World Series, beat cancer and has simply been the man for the past nine years. All because they’re afraid he won’t be spectacular for six years? It’s pretty weak.

I understood why they let Ellsbury walk for big money last winter, and I understand the business decision to not take the risk on Lester. At the same time, if you don’t extend yourself for Lester, who on earth do you extend yourself for?

(Unless the Red Sox have a secret plan to sign him in the offseason, no matter what. If so, that would be nuts and hilarious and awesome.)

Keefe: I don’t think Jon Lester is going to sign back with the Red Sox as much as some delusional Red Sox fans do. The whole point of him extending his contract for a “hometown discount” would have been that he would remain a Red Sox for life. Now that he is with Oakland, the lifetime Red Sox part of the equation is gone and with him being an impending free agent, he is going to chase the money. Some team is going to offer him seven years (Hello, Yankees!) and when Jon Lester sees some $150-plus million deal starting him in the face he is going to take it. Let’s not forget that Lester is finishing up a five-year, $30 million deal and from 2009 through this season it’s taken him the same amount of time to earn nearly what CC Sabathia is this season to pitch horribly and then not pitch at all.

The best-case scenario for the Yankees was that Lester would end up with a team that has no intention of extending or re-signing him and that’s what happened. Instead of landing with the Dodgers or Cardinals, he’s in Oakland. So I want to thank the Red Sox for trading him there and not to a big-market team where he might have stayed.

You should come down to New York next season for his first start in the Bronx.

Hurley: I might do that. I like Jon Lester. That’s really rare for a baseball player, I feel. They’re all self-absorbed, rich-out-of-their-minds awful people, for the most part. Lester is a decent guy, the kind of person that makes you wonder what the hell he spends all that money on. I don’t see Lester cruising in a Ferrari during the offseasons, you know?

Any way, I’m glad you didn’t really ask me anything in that email, because I have an important topic I need to bring up here.

The New York Yankees. Big team, lots of fans, right? Lots of people care about the Yanks, safe to say? Large following? People want to see them win and everything? OK.

Then how in God’s name is everybody OK with having the Ghost of Derek Jeter play shortstop down the stretch while putting Stephen Drew at second base, a position that a trained monkey can play?

Derek Jeter is not as awful at shortstop as everyone in America likes to make him out to be, but he is still most definitely bad at it. He’s old, and he’s just gotten worse and worse at the position for the past seven years. Yet because he’s JEETS, and because of Re2pect, the Yankees are going to waste literally the only useful thing Stephen Drew can do on a baseball field? That’s insane.

You’re going to have a second baseman who hits .170. That’s solid. There weren’t any big-name second basemen on the free-agent market last winter, were there?

Keefe: I kind of sort of remember there being a big-name second baseman being available last winter. What was his name? Brian Roberts? Kelly Johnson? Ah, I forget it. It will come to me though.

The Yankees should have signed Robinson Cano for 10 years and $240 million. Who cares? I don’t. It’s not my money. Anyone who doesn’t have ownership in the Yankees shouldn’t care either. The Yankees are in the mix for the AL East despite having 80 percent of their Opening Day rotation on the disabled list and a middle of the order that is a disaster. WAR or math or science might suggest that even with Cano the Yankees wouldn’t be leading the division, but I know they would. Roberts and Johnson left every person on the base imaginable and played a collective horrible defense costing the Yankees several games. They should have signed Cano and worried about him sucking at the end of his deal later on. Instead we have Jacoby Ellsbury, who needs days off here and there and has given new meaning to the word “streaky” and Carlos Beltran, who might be softer than Mark Teixeira.

Derek Jeter should be playing shortstop over Drew because he’s Derek Jeter and I don’t care if mid-90s Omar Vizquel walks through the door, Derek Jeter is playing shortstop. Have some effing RE2PECT would you, Michael?

The Drews are like the Weavers to me in that I picture their family driving around in a station wagon yelling, “WHO RULES? DREW RULES! WHO RULES? DREW RULES! DREW RULES! DREW RULES!” like the O’Doyles in Billy Madison.

I’m not happy the Yankees got Drew and that they might re-sign him and he could be playing shortstop next season, but things could be worse. They could have traded for John Lackey.

Hurley: I legitimately laughed out loud at the DREW RULES scenario. It’s very likely the case.

I just feel like there is RE2PECT, and then there is stupid. And if you really RE2PECT Derek Jeter and want to send him out a champion, you should field the best team possible. That means Jeter gets penciled into the lineup with the letters “D” and “H” next to his name every night. To do otherwise is pretty delusional, to borrow a term from you.

I looked it up for you — Brian Roberts hit .242 with RISP. Johnson hit .280.

Do you know what Drew has hit with RISP? He’s hit .154, Neil. One-fifty-four. He also hit .111 last year in 16 playoff games.

So hey, enjoy Stephen Drew. I’m sure he’s going to be awesome.

Keefe: Well then it must have been my imagination that Brian Roberts and Kelly Johnson were as bad as they were, but I know they were. But thanks for sharing Drew’s average with RISP for me to make me feel even better about the Yankees’ trade deadline moves.

One of the biggest takeaways from deadline day was how ecstatic Red Sox fans were about Yoenis Cespedes coming to Boston. Unless I missed the news that Major League Baseball will no longer decide the season based on 162 actual games and will use Home Run Derby to determine the champion, I’m not sure failing to re-sign your 30-year-old left-handed ace and trading him for a .250 hitter who strikes out a lot, but can hit mammoth home runs is the best move, but hey, starting pitching in baseball isn’t that big of a deal. I also find it odd how many people were instantly fine with Lester being traded for a bat, considering what Lester meant to the team and the fact that Cespedes will be a free agent after 2015.

Yoenis Cespedes woke up on Thursday morning on the best team in Major League Baseball. Now he is on the worst team in the AL East with nothing to play for over the next two months.

Good times never seemed so good!

Hurley: Yeah, I mean, I think the initial excitement was based on the fact that:

A) Everyone knew Lester was getting traded, and
B) Everyone expected the Red Sox to simply receive a package of prospects in return.

To see the Sox get an established big league hitter who can mash, it provides some excitement. I don’t think anyone thought, “Holy crap, we got Cespedes! Next stop – championship!” I think it was more, “Holy hell, the Red Sox actually got someone I’ve heard of! And he doesn’t suck!”

Cespedes has more home runs this season than all Red Sox outfielders combined. (Even more if you factor in HR Derby dingers, like Jayson Stark did yesterday!) He provides the Red Sox with something they desperately need. If it works out this year, he’s someone they can sign long term to hit bombs. Or maybe they can move him down to Miami, where he’ll be the biggest star in the history of Miami, for Giancarlo Stanton, or something wild like that. You never know. There’s reason to be excited for Cespedes, even though none of it has to do with being competitive at all this year.

Me personally, I was pissed off that they got Cespedes. There I was, ready to see everyone traded away and ready to see tickets for the next two months become cheaper than dirt. (I bought tickets in April for $3. THREE DOLLARS!) I was so ready for a summer like 2012 again, where the stands are filled almost entirely with just baseball fans and not yahoos who think going to the ballgame is cool. Alas, adding Cespedes should keep people interested for a few extra weeks, and I might not get my cheap seats until mid-September. These are the things I care about.

Blogs • Yankees

Jul 29, 2014

The Joe Girardi Show: Season 5, Episode 3

The Yankees lost another winnable game in the middle of a pennant race and Joe Girardi’s decision making once again played a prominent role in the loss.

On Sunday afternoon, Paul O’Neill said the following about Joe Girardi, which left me with the same blank stare Dave Kujan had when he realized “Verbal” Kint was Keyser Soze.

“I think that Joe Girardi realizes where this team is. You have to win every single game you have an opportunity to win. You have an opportunity to win this game, you go all out. You don’t worry about tomorrow.”

What shocked me is how anyone, let alone Paul O’Neill, could think that about Joe Girardi. No one plays for tomorrow more than Joe Girardi, always worrying about hypothetical situations that will most likely never take place.

I did the first episode of the fifth season of The Joe Girardi Show back on April 21 and then I didn’t do the second episode until July 22 (one week ago). I finished last week’s episode by saying the following:

I always hope that my latest version of The Joe Girardi Show is the last one I will ever have to do because it would mean he wouldn’t have given me a reason to write another one. Unfortunately, I know that won’t be the case.

Here we are, seven days later and I’m writing the third episode. Like I said, I don’t want to have do these, but I especially don’t want to have to be doing them at the end of July with the Yankees in the middle of both a division race and wild-card race.

The Yankees could have won on Saturday if Joe Girardi didn’t carelessly and irresponsibly let Jeff Francis pitch the ninth inning of one-run game against a division opponent the Yankees are battling to win a playoff spot. But he left Francis pitch and the Blue Jays turned their one-run lead into a four-run lead rendering Carlos Beltran’s two-run home in the bottom of the ninth worthless.

On Sunday, Girardi let David Huff (DAVID HUFF!!!) pitch the seventh inning of a tie game against the Blue Jays. Well, he let him start the seventh inning and once Huff put the first two hitters of the inning on base then Girardi brought in Dellin Betances, who eventually escaped a bases-loaded jam, most likely making Girardi believe in his own head that he made the right decision. Like I have always said, Girardi is the guy who stays with a 16 in Blackjack with the dealer showing a 7 and when the dealer flips over a 9 and then pulls a 10 to bust, Girardi thinks he made the right decision.

But even after some inexplicable moves over the weekend against the team the Yankees are currently battling for divisional and wild-card position, Monday was the boiling point once again. I couldn’t take it anymore when on Monday, for the second time in as many Mondays, his decision making was at the forefront of a Yankees loss to the Rangers — the worst team in Major League Baseball.

So once again, it was necessary to fill in for Michael Kay on my version of The Joe Girardi Show.

Why did David Phelps face J.P. Arencibia?
The better question here might be “Why did David Phelps throw the 0-2 pitch that he threw to J.P. Arencibia?” but if Phelps hadn’t faced Arencibia then he never would have been able to throw that 0-2 meatball.

Here was David Phelps’ line for the game before the fifth inning started: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 55 pitches. He gave up a single on five pitches to start the inning and then retired the next two hitters on four pitches. His updated line: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 64 pitches.

After that, Elvis Andrus singled (first pitch), Alex Rios singled (third pitch), and Adrian Beltre doubled (third pitch). His updated line: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 71 pitches.

At 8 p.m. last night in Arlington it was 88 degrees with 40 percent humidity and at 9 p.m. it was 86 degrees with 41 percent humidity. After giving up three hits in four innings, Phelps, who usually pitches in much different conditions, had just allowed four hits to the last six batters and after having thrown 37 pitches in the first three innings, he had now thrown 34 in the last 1 2/3 innings. Phelps was tiring and losing control of his pitches and the game, so what did Girardi do? He let him face Jim Adduci. And what did Phelps do? He walked him on four pitches.

Let’s recap: Phelps was cruising, having pitched four shutout innings and allowing just three hits and no walks on 55 pitches. He had now put five of the seven batters he faced in the inning on base and after giving up three consecutive hits, he had just walked a 29-year-old career minor leaguer, who entered the game with 73 career plate appearances in the majors, on four pitches. Would you say that David Phelps was fatigued, had lost control and should be removed from a tie game with one of the game’s best pitchers going against the Yankees? I would.

I know why Joe Girardi left David Phelps in the game. Arencibia entered the game hitting .147/.194/.305, and more importantly, he entered the game 1-for-11 with five strikeouts against Phelps, but this is where the binder backfires. Arencibia’s stat page against Phelps in Girardi’s binder says that he is 1-for-11 with five strikeouts against him, but it doesn’t say that the sun was melting Arlington on Monday night with Phelps laboring over the last four hitters and now having thrown 20 pitches already in the inning. Phelps had fully unraveled before he threw an 0-2 fastball to a hitter who loves fastballs, but Girardi decided a tired Phelps running on fumes was his best option in a pennant race with a rested elite bullpen. If Arencibia, having a horrible offensive year, has had so much trouble making contact against Phelps, who isn’t exactly a strikeout pitcher, wouldn’t he have even more trouble against a true strikeout pitcher out of the bullpen?

Single up the middle. 4-2 Rangers.

Why did Jacoby Ellsbury get the day off?
Before Monday’s game there were 58 games left in the season and the Yankees trailed in the division by 4 games and in the wild card by 1 game. On Monday, the Yankees were playing the worst team in the league with one of the best pitchers in the game on the mound, so you would think you would want to put your best offensive lineup together. If you want to rest someone, maybe give them a rest on Tuesday against Nick Martinez or on Wednesday against Colby Lewis. But against Yu Darvish? Why? Whyyyy?!?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Ellsbury was eventually used as a pinch hitter to lead off the ninth, so his “day off” wasn’t a day off. But he wasn’t used as a pinch hitter with two on and two out in the eighth. Instead he used Zelous Wheeler in that spot because you have to have a right-handed hitter face a left-handed pitcher!

Jacoby Ellsbury signed a seven-year, $153 million deal in the offseason. He is making $21.1 million this season and is hitting LINE with HR and RBIs. He last stole He is one of several reasons that Robinson Cano is now playing in Seattle. He should be playing EV-ERY SING-LE GAME. Every one. He is 30 years old, not 40 and even if he has a history of freak injuries, and then babying those injuries, you can’t plan for freak injuries, and he needs to play every day.

Mike Francesa has repeatedly called Ellsbury “the Yankees’ best player” and in 2014 with a 40-year-old Derek Jeter, a bad Carlos Beltran, an inconsistent Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira being softer than ever, that’s not much of an accomplishment for Ellsbury. But if he is “the Yankees’ best player” he needs to play every day. That’s what “best players” do. Ask Robinson Cano.

If Mark Teixeira could pinch hit, why didn’t he play the whole game?
Mark Teixeira is the fraud of all frauds. He has received a free pass as a Yankee because the team won the World Series in his first year with the team thanks to Alex Rodriguez, who from 2004-2009 had to deal with the postseason ridicule that Teixeira should also have to deal with. If the Yankees were still looking for a championship since 2000, Teixeira wouldn’t be making appearances in Entourage and trying to be Johnny Carson for YES while on the disabled list.

Last February, Teixeira foreshadowed that he is breaking down despite at the time still being owed $90 million. He then got hurt preparing for the World Baseball Classic and played in just 15 games before undergoing season-ending wrist surgery. This season, Teixeira has missed time due to hamstring, wrist, rib cage, knee and lat injuries and also tired legs. The last time he played in a game was the series finale against the Reds last Sunday (July 20). After successfully taking on-field batting practice on Monday night in Texas it was made known that he was healthy enough to return to the lineup on Tuesday night.

Joe Girardi has this “rule” where once an injured player appears healthy enough to return to the lineup, they are given an extra day before returning. That would be a good “rule” to follow if there were a lot of off-days in baseball, but there aren’t and there aren’t any days that can be wasted when you’re chasing 4 (now 4.5) in the division and 1 (now 2) in the wild card. So if Teixeira was deemed eligible to play on Tuesday night, that means Monday was his “Girardi Day” where he would sit for no reason other than as an extra precaution like someone setting an alarm clock for their alarm clock.

One on, two out, trailing 4-2 in the eighth inning and Brian Roberts, who should no longer be on the team let alone in the lineup against Yu Darvish, is called back to the dugout for pinch hitter Mark Teixeira. He singled. What if Joe Girardi had played him the entire game?

I hope Paul O’Neill was watching Monday’s game because he would have seen how wrong he was on Sunday. Joe Girardi always plays for tomorrow. If he doesn’t stop, at the end of September, there won’t be a tomorrow to play for.

Podcasts • Yankees

Jul 29, 2014

Podcast: JJ Barstool Sports New York

JJ of Barstool Sports New York joins me to talk about the state of the Yankees, his chase of Brandon McCarthy’s wife Amanda and hanging out with Vidal Nuno at the bar.

The Yankees desperately need to win series and losing the opening game of a three-game set in Texas against the worst team in baseball wasn’t the best way to start a six-game road trip. Joe Girardi once again managed his pitching staff for tomorrow, which is something that would surprise Paul O’Neill, and the offense was nowhere to be found as the Yankees let another winnable game get away.

JJ of Barstool Sports New York joined me to talk about the state of the Yankees with two months left in the season, what moves Brian Cashman should make, JJ’s chase of Brandon McCarthy’s wife Amanda and hanging out with Vidal Nuno at the bar.

Podcasts • Yankees

Jul 25, 2014

Podcast: Bryan Hoch

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com joins me to talk about the Yankees’ surge to open the “second half” and if they are really a playoff team with two months of baseball left.

After a 47-47 “first half” of the season, Joe Girardi said, “We better play better at home, or we better go undefeated on the road.” Well, the Yankees have listened, going 6-1 since the All-Star break and putting themselves back in position to either win the AL East or the second wild card. It looks like they won’t have to go undefeated on the road, but to take a line from David Woodeson (Matthew McConaughey) in Dazed and Confused, “It would be a lot cooler if they did.”

Bryan Hoch, the Yankees beat writer for MLB.com, joined me to talk about the Yankees’ surge to open the “second half,” the recent moves they have made and ones they could still make before next week’s trade deadline and if they are really a playoff team with two months of baseball left.

Blogs • Yankees

Jul 22, 2014

The Joe Girardi Show: Season 5, Episode 2

Joe Girardi blew Monday night’s game for the Yankees with his bullpen management in the sixth inning and his decision making set up another episode of The Joe Girardi Show.

I can’t remember the last time I was this devastated, upset, frustrated, embarrassed, angry, disappointed, sad and pissed off over a regular-season loss. Looking back, I’m laughing at myself for calling the June 24 loss to the Blue Jays the worst loss of the season because when you put it next to Monday night against the Rangers, it’s about as close as comparing the willingness to play through injury of Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira.

Monday night had it all. It was like a never-ending diner menu for every kind of negative feeling baseball can emote from a person, featuring five Yankees errors, two runs against a pitcher with a 10.05 ERA, one disastrous inning of managing and one big loss to the worst team in the entire majors. But because I can’t do anything about the physical mistakes (the errors) and can’t make the Yankees score runs against a horrible pitcher, I decided to focus on what could have been changed to prevent the Yankees from losing the game: the sixth inning.

It’s now been over three months since the last episode on April 21, but I felt after Monday night that it was necessary to fill in for Michael Kay on my version of The Joe Girardi Show.

Why did Shane Greene face Geovanny Soto?
Shane Greene threw 113 pitches on Monday. One hundred and thirteen. In his last start on July 12 he threw 106 and on July 7, in his only other start in the majors before that, he threw 88. How unusual was it for Joe Girardi (Mr. Conservative) to let a pitcher throw 113 pitches in a game? Well, the Yankees have played 98 games this year and here are each of their starting pitchers with the number of pitches they have thrown in each of their starts:

Masahiro Tanaka: 97, 101, 107, 105, 105, 108, 113, 108, 114, 88, 118, 106, 104, 110, 104, 106, 116, 85, 99.

Hiroki Kuroda: 91, 92, 97, 99, 91, 94, 108, 95, 98, 100, 94, 93, 90, 93, 107, 102, 109, 105, 103, 99.

David Phelps: 87, 70, 100, 104, 109, 92, 93, 102, 115, 94, 101, 107, 103, 98.

Vidal Nuno: 69, 72, 80, 82, 78, 81, 101, 101, 92, 92, 75, 107, 91, 89.

CC Sabathia: 99, 93, 111, 107, 106, 98, 77, 107.

Chase Whitley: 74, 71, 91, 83, 87, 82, 95, 87, 81, 74, 68.

Michael Pineda: 83, 94, 89, 37.

Ivan Nova: 88, 61, 97, 80.

Brandon McCarthy: 101, 99.

Greene’s 113 on Monday night represented the fifth time in 98 games (5.1 percent) that Girardi has left his starter in long enough to reach that number.

With the Yankees leading 2-1, Greene retired the first two hitters in the sixth and then gave up a single to Jake Smolinski on his 105th pitch of the game. At that time I expected Girardi to come out to get Greene. He didn’t. Greene walked Jim Adduci on five pitches to put two on with two outs and then I was certain Girardi would come get Greene at 110 pitches. He didn’t. Instead Larry Rothschild came out and talked to Greene briefly and turned around and went back to the dugout. Girardi stayed in the dugout and the bullpen door never opened. Three pitches later, Geovanny Soto singled to left. Tie game.

Why is Matt Thornton still being considered an “A” reliever just because he is left-handed?
The obvious answer to this question is that Matt Thornton is the left-hander in the bullpen and will face left-handed hitters. Some would say, “If you’re not going to bring Thornton into the game in that spot, then why is he on the team?” And to that I would answer, “He shouldn’t be.”

Matt Thornton is not good. Once upon a time Matt Thornton was good, but the last time he was good was in 2010. Since 2010, he has been “OK” and the last thing you want your left-handed “specialist” who will only be called on for one hitter or maybe two hitters in huge spots is to be “OK.” This year, lefties are hitting .277/.340/.277 against him and he has only struck out eight of the 55 lefties he has seen (14.5 percent). There’s a reason the Red Sox left him off their postseason roster last year and there’s a reason the White Sox traded him to the Red Sox in the first place and there’s a Red Sox didn’t care to re-sign him: he isn’t good.

But there was Matt Thornton being called on to face to face two lefties with runners on first and second and two outs in the sixth. And there was Matt Thornton giving up an RBI single to 20-year-old Rougned Odor and his 197 career plate appearances and there he was giving up another RBI single one a 1-2 pitch to Shin-Soo Choo.

Thornton left the game after failing to retire either lefty he faced and allowing both inherited runners to score to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead. Only in Major League Baseball, where Thornton is getting paid $3.5 million this year (and next year!), is it OK to not do your job in any capacity and then leave your workplace without holding yourself unaccountable for your actions. And that’s what Thornton did as he was nowhere to be found in the Stadium when the media went to ask him about his horrible performance. If Thornton worked a real-life, 9-5 job, an equivalent work day to his Monday night effort would have been showing up to the office at lunch time, eating fish that smelled up the entire place, taking a dump in the handicap stall in the bathroom and then going home for the day.

Why did Adam Warren relieve Matt Thornton instead of Shane Greene?
Who comes in to relieve Matt Thornton? Why it’s Adam Warren! You know him. He’s the supposed seventh-inning guy — the first reliever to be used in a big spot after David Robertson and Dellin Betances. The guy Girardi trusted more than Betances earlier in the year because he had been in the league longer despite having inferior ability and numbers to Betances (which is odd since Girardi didn’t trust Betances to be his setup guy earlier in the season because he’s a rookie while Warren and Shawn Kelley ruined games, but here he is trusting rookie Shane Greene to throw 113 pitches in his third career start).

So Warren, who Girardi didn’t turn to for either of the two right-handed hitters Greene was allowed to face at 105 and 110 pitches, comes in to face right-handed Elvis Andrus in an inning where the game has already changed and the Yankees have already given up the lead.

This entire inning was part of a much bigger problem, which is set innings for relievers because in real life (which is where games should be managed), the game needed to be saved in the sixth inning. Worry about the seventh and eighth innings (where the bases will be empty) when you get there and worry about how you will protect the lead in the ninth when you get there. Girardi went against his own formula by bringing in seventh-inning guy Warren in the sixth inning after he already let the game get away by overusing his starter and calling on a “B” reliever. So now, the same way Betances was likely unavailable on Monday night because of his 1 1/3 innings on Sunday, Warren is now likely unavailable for the following game after being wasted to hold a deficit rather than protect a lead or keep the game tied, which are both things he could have and should have been asked to do on Monday.

I always hope that my latest version of The Joe Girardi Show is the last one I will ever have to do because it would mean he wouldn’t have given me a reason to write another one. Unfortunately, I know that won’t be the case.