Yanks lose but still win

The Yanks lost a tough 5-4 game but they’re still sitting pretty. The Sox beat the Rays so the Yanks’ magic number is now six to clinch a playoff spot; I’ll take that.

I have two gripes with the game:

1) CC. He has looked a little shaky for a while now. The big guy went just 5 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on 10 hits with eight strikeouts to four walks. He also needed 120 pitches to get through that. Not cool.

I don’t know if it’s the team going with a six-man rotation or if it’s due to that game with the two rain delays, but over his last nine games he has given up 10 hits five times. In his 17 prior starts he hadn’t given up more than eight hits.

Plus, he’s getting killed with the long ball too; over those last nine games he’s been touched for nine dingers whereas he had yielded six homers all season up to that point. He’s surrendered 29 earned runs over this slump as opposed to 25 ER over his previous 14. Again, not cool.

Hopefully this is a thing of the past as Girardi said he will be going on regular rest for his next outing. This is not the time to have your best starter slump.

I’m not trying to sound like a bitch here because CC is having a phenomenal season. He’s 19-8 with a 3.01 ERA and 224 strikeouts; only two Yankees have had more Ks in a single season (Guidry in 1978 and Jack Chesbro in 1904). He also tied Catfish Hunter for 64th place on the all-time strikeout list with his 2,011th punch out.

2) The bullpen, or rather Girardi’s use of it. So threw the seventh inning and D-Rob tossed the eighth; I don’t have a problem with that, that’s fine. However, why would you use Boone Logan and Cory Wade in the ninth when you have The Greatest Ever sitting in the bullpen?

Not using your closer in a tie game on the road is a stupid rule that Girardi needs to snap out of abiding to; did he learn nothing from Wednesday’s game? Heaven help us if he tries that shit in the playoffs.

I’ll keep my bitching to a minimum because they inched their way closer to a postseason berth, but sometimes Girardi pisses me off.