Yankees: Alex Rodriguez blasts NYY on the air after Game 3 loss

Former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez had some choice words for the Bombers on Wednesday night.

In what turned out to be a wildly unpopular decision, the New York Yankees attempted to fool the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 2 of the ALDS by starting Deivi Garcia and pulling him after the first inning in favor of JA Happ. The veteran left-hander was tasked with logging a few innings against a lefty-heavy lineup. Sounds fine, right?

But he failed miserably, which wasn’t really a surprise to anyone, and now after Masahiro Tanaka’s horrific outing in Game 3, everyone’s pointing to that pitching move in Game 2 as the potential undoing of the Yankees.

Even former slugger Alex Rodriguez is a big critic of it, and boy did he have a lot to say about the Bombers.

Michael Kay’s rant was harsh enough, but this coming from A-Rod is pretty jarring. He was a Yankee for 12 years and is very much in tune to how the organization best takes care of business, and he thinks it’s certainly wrong for them to try and outsmart their opponents. They’re not a small-market franchise looking to get an edge. They’re the New York Yankees.

They have all the advantages in the world. The Rays are already among the smartest organizations in all of sports. They’re constantly operating with a dollar-store budget and manage to compete year in and year out. Do we really think manager Kevin Cash didn’t expect the Yankees to make this switch? He no doubt had it in the back of his mind.

A-Rod also added that the players are tasked with bailing out the front office with a move like that. JA Happ is a starter, he’s not a reliever. Deivi Garcia is a starter, not an opener. Putting pressure on the lineup to play from behind is never a good strategy, regardless of who you are.

At the end of the day, we’ll never know what would’ve happened if the Yankees just let Garcia pitch out that start or if they threw Tanaka in Game 2. Garcia threw 27 pitches in the first inning and allowed a homer — it wasn’t looking good. Tanaka got shelled on Wednesday night for the second time in a week. Why do we think things would’ve been that much different?

It’s easy, because this is a prime scapegoat-able situation and it’s a clear try-hard attempt at being someone you’re not, although it really wasn’t as bad of a decision as many are making it out to be.

But A-Rod, a former Yankee who worked under this same front office, has a valid point here, and he wouldn’t be saying something like this unless he truly meant it.

Yankees: Umpire bails out Charlie Morton against Luke Voit and screws Masahiro Tanaka

Home plate umpire Mark Carlson saves a run for the Rays, giving Charlie Morton two huge strike calls against Yankees slugger Luke Voit.