June 7, 2024
***
Hey, when it's a big game... and your team loses, it's only natural to look at the manager and wonder if he could have done anything differently.
And if one looks to the manager for this one, it's the correct look. (Please see the game thread. This wasn't second guessing, it was noting the correct moves in real time and seeing the manager making the wrong moves.)
Boone showcased Soto as a possible pinch hitter in the last few innings. Was he bluffing? Maybe. But if you have Soto, and you don't use him, that's simply bad managing. Boone let inferior hitters bat in big spots rather than Soto. (Now, if Soto is hurt and can't bat, that's a different story. But this bluffing then worked... for one game. And, the bluffing didn't work anyway so it was a dumb thing to do, to pretend he could bat.)
Clay Holmes pitched a great ninth inning throwing only 10 pitches. Boone pulled him anyway for the 10th going to Ian Hamilton. Since the Yanks didn't score in the 10th (partially because they didn't use Soto), they had to use Hamilton in a second inning - and after 26 or 27 pitches, he got beat. Ian Hamilton was the last effective pitcher the Yankees could go to. With that in mind alone, Holmes should have pitched another inning.
This one is on Boone. He managed poorly. He demonstrated the BIG concern so many fans have had since he started managing - a lack of feel for the right move at the right moment, the lack of seeing things more than one inning ahead, or even one batter ahead, at times, the inability to make the gutsy decision, deferring to his big name players (not pinch hitting for LeMahieu, twice; not pinch hitting for Stanton twice, not pinch hitting for Rizzo twice).
Boone's decisions (or lack thereof) lost this game. This one is on him.
The worry, the big worry, is that we'll see this type of indecision, being overwhelmed by the big moments, and etc... in the playoffs - not because we don't like Boone, not because we're irrational and emotional fans... no, it's none of that, it is because this is how Boone has managed since he became the manager of the Yankees. He gets out-managed in the big games.
And he was outmanaged tonight.
Soto was out of the line-up.
Schmidt is on the IL and Poteet was pitching
and the game rolled rolled along, scorelessly, through 9 innings.
Boone tried to steal one from the Dodgers
and failed.
I'm not sure I'm pinning this on Boone: When asked after the game, he said that Soto wasn't playing last night. Based on further comments he and Soto made, I suspect it was Soto's doing to look ready to go...because he probably wanted to play! That's how he's wired. As for Holmes, we gotta remember that he had pitched Thursday as well. How hard do we want Boone to push him, knowing the overall state of the bullpen and the fact that it's June? If I'm questioning the pen usage, I'm scratching my head about running Hamilton out for a second inning when he's pitched three of the last four games. That being said, there's not a lot of great options…
I disagree… to risk further injury to Soto for one meaningless game in early June is shortsighted.
However, it is inexcusable for a 4th OF/bench guy like Grisham to not be able to bunt a runner over when needed. That non-play, combined with Stanton’s inability to protect Judge in the lineup is what cost the team tonight’s game.
But the handling of the pitching staff was off.
Why PR Jones if you're not going to let him play 3B?
Why not PH Wells for Trevino?
The only real question at the presser is: was Soto really available to pinch hit?
But then, if Grisham could've laid the bunt down...