THE MONKEY

Well, the Yankees got the monkey off their backs.  The offense came alive, and they broke the Red Sox jinx with a rousing 13-6 win.  The Yanks lead the AL East by 3.5 games, and the Red Sox are reeling.  For now.

It was a good thing the offense came up big, because Girardi and the pitchers did what they could to hand the game to Boston.  Girardi’s sins were several.  First, he held Joba back from his usual start day so he could pitch against the Sox.  Sounds like good strategy, but the result was an erratic Joba, who was wildly and generally ineffective.  In five tortuous innings, he gave up 4 runs, 6 hits, and 7 walks.  In short, he stunk.  No doubt the extra rest had an adverse effect.

Not to be outdone, the bullpen couldn’t throw strikes either.  Of course, when I say “the bullpen”, I am talking about the second team, because Girardi used Hughes in both Toronto games, making him unavailable, and used Aceves against the Jays for over two innings, putting him on the bench.  So we were forced to suffer through Robertson (ineffective), Coke (adequate), and Melancon (not ready for prime time), who gave us three more walks, numerous full counts, and an unintentional drilling of Dustin Pedroia (oh damn).  Anthony Claggett gave us the eleventh and twelfth walks in the 9th.  Twelve walks in a 13-6 win.  Can’t anybody here throw strikes?

In short, it was a tedious game, made tolerable only by the fact that the offense scored 13 runs.  But they got it done.  The hex is broken.  The monkey is off their backs.   Girardi may be a lousy manager, but this year he’s been lucky.  And you know what Napoleon said about Marshal Murat:  “I know he’s good, but is he lucky?”  Lucky counts.

Although I’d still rather have Joe Torre.

As for the Sox, all the pundits disparaged Brian Cashman when he signed Sabathia and Burnett, while praising Theo for his “wise” use of his money in signed John Smoltz.  Well, guess what, Theo, you can stick a fork in Smoltz – he’s done.  The Yanks shelled him for 8 runs and 9n hits in 3.1 innings, featuring two gargantuan home runs by Melky and Jorge.  And let’s not forget Big Steroid.  He was a rousing 0-5.

An ugly night for everybody.  But I’ll take it.

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