Jamie Insalaco
No, A-Rod didn’t hit his dinger.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets talk about this game and the reason the Yankees lost: the unraveling of AJ Burnett in the 5th inning. What the hell happened? He seemed to be pitching well, but all of the sudden, it seemed like his command deserted him. He came into the inning with a low pitch count, so it couldn’t have been fatigue… I know Michael Kay is fond of saying, "Burnett is like the little girl with the curl: he’s either very, very good or very very bad," and while I don’t exactly understand that simile, I do hear what he’s saying. However, we did learn one thing last night; the Blue Jays do not know hot to pitch with a lead.
I liked what Joe Girardi did with his bench last night. I liked the idea of pitch hitting Marcus Thames for Curtis Granderson; maybe this will act like lighting a fire under Grandy. I do think Austin Kearns can help this team, but I also believe he should have tried to foul off that pitch he took for strike when he pitch hit for Brett Gardner; I feel like when you’re called on to pitch hit late in the game, the last thing you want to do is go down looking, right?
Just a quick shout out to Joba Chamberlain, who pitched pretty well last night. If he gets on track, the Yankees bullpen might suddenly go from a weakness to a strength with the tremendous turn around of David Robertson and the arrival of Kerry Wood. I think demoting Joba and bringing in Wood is just the kick in the ass Joba needs, and since the demotion, he’s pitched pretty well, so lets see how this thing unfolds.
