MLB should be ashamed of causing Yankees injury scare with horrible weather decision

The New York Yankees' pitching staff is thin enough as it is. They still have another 150 games' worth of slings and arrows to battle through. What they can't afford is for forces outside their control to conspire to make their situation even worse.

Point Blank: Playing Friday night's game between the Yankees and Giants was downright foolish. According to MLB's rule book, it was the Yankees' decision to start the game (they did so a half-hour delayed), but future decisions fell into the umpires' discretion once the home team's lineup was handed over.

Why did the Yankees begin the game at all? Aaron Boone mentioned some "pessimistic" and "optimistic" reports that "came in" and clouded his vision. Given the weather constraints of the rest of the weekend, it's not stunning the Yankees wanted to do all they could to get five innings in against a team that doesn't come east very often.

But as the situation developed, it's shocking that the umpiring crew continued to put both teams at risk of injury for an unnerving two hours before the operation was shut down. Unsurprisingly, only the Yankees were burned by injuries.

Even more shocking? Once the game was official after the bottom of the fifth (with the Yankees facing a seven-run deficit), the crew decided to keep on pushing, leading almost directly to key reliever Yoendrys Gomez falling victim to something worrisome.

Yankees' Yoendrys Gomez suffers potential injury because of umpires' horrible rain delay decision

Gomez's velocity, typically in the low-to-mid-90s, plainly dipped into the 80s as he walked the Giants' batters around the bases directly prior to the game being called. Gomez insisted he was healthy, and continued to do so in the postgame. Regardless, it's clear that sloppy mound conditions made him compensate, losing velocity in the process and risking harm. If he got out unscathed, he's lucky. That doesn't come close to justifying MLB's process here.

Swirling winds, driving rain, and some of the worst conditions Aaron Boone and Brad Ausmus have played through in 30 years of baseball. Sometimes, we get on Boone's case for managing two games ahead and failing to deploy the bullpen properly. In this case, MLB planned two games ahead for future weather concerns, leaving their players exposed in the meantime. They deserve scorn for it.