HALOS WIN BATTLE OF MANAGER GAFFES

Last night's intense ALCS Game Five came down to a 7th inning of bad managerial moves that led to a combined 9 runs. A game that ended with a hard-fought 7-6 Angels win. It had begun as a pitching mismatch. John Lackey was exactly as advertised, a bulldog ace with a never-say-die attitude, who mowed down the Yankees for six innings. A.J. Burnett, on the other hand, was playing his weak Dr. Jekyll half, allowing 4 earned runs before recording his first out. However, after that, he settled down and actually pitched very well for the next five innings. Then came one of the more chaotic innings ever in ALCS play.

The Yankees managed to load the bases against Lackey, but he got Johnny Damon to fly out for the second out. That's when an unusual occurrence happened. The man widely considered the best manager in baseball, Mike Scioscia, came and inexplicably pulled out a protesting Lackey for journeyman lefty Darren Oliver. Scioscia did this to turn Mark Teixeira around to his right side. Odd since Teix actually had a better average going that way! As if it were scripted, the Yankee first-baseman proceeded to pummel Oliver's first pitch for a 3-run double. This undoubtedly caused Lackey to go into a Hulk-like rage in the locker room. It also opened the flood gates for a 6-run comeback from the Yankees that pulled them ahead 6-4.

Lackey's team picked both him and their manager's lapse in judgement up in the bottom half of the inning with 3 runs that put them ahead permanently. This is where Joe Giradi had struck again. Maybe because of criticisms of pulling pitchers too early, maybe because Burnett had indeed looked better than he did in the first inning and his pitch count was still low, or maybe just because it's his first ALCS and he's overcompensating for everything, but Joe let A.J. go back out there after sitting for a very long half inning. Again, a half inning where Yankees had pulled ahead. There was no way Burnett was going to be as sharp as he had been. Meanwhile, he had a fresh bullpen ready to go. Burnett went ahead and gave up a single and a walk before being pulled.

Now, OK, I'm against him coming out at all there, but after the first guy gets on, isn't that usually enough? Why put your bullpen that far behind the eightball? A bullpen, that beyond a couple of guys, has struggled lately.

The man out of that bullpen? Lefty Damaso Marte??? What? Not Phil Coke, your #1 lefty all year? Really? Well, you know, I can't complain much here, he actually did the job, it was just a weird call. Next up was Phil Hughes, this season's lockdown set-up man who's had a bad post-season. He did not do the job, and probably should have been pulled earlier. By the time he had gotten out of it, the score was 7-6 Angels.

The next inning was started by Joba Chamberlain, who quickly proved he is most definitely not the guy from '07. Mariano was once again brought in early to clean up the mess. The thing about putting Joba in this role is he really doesn't deserve it. I mean, what has he done this season to prove he's good enough? All he's proven this year was that the Yankees' rules for him did not work at all. Instead, they made him a headcase that everyone in the organization seems to think is better than he currently is. Anyways, the big deal about all of this is that there's a guy languishing in the bullpen that has been used sparingly for no good reason.

Whatever it is about him, Joe Giradi doesn't seem to trust David Robertson, and that is just mind-boggling. The guy had the best strike-out to innings ratio in the AL this year! He was slowed a bit late in the year by a tired shoulder, but in his appearances this post-season he's been nothing short of phenomenal. I just can't understand why he wouldn't jump up a few notches when the rest of them are struggling so. I would've definitely had thrown him in instead of Joba and maybe even Hughes in this game. Then straight to Mo after that, no fooling around with guys that aren't working. Meanwhile, Scioscia had gone to Jered Weaver in the 8th, who took down the Yankees 1-2-3.

In the top of the ninth, Halos closer Brian Fuentes got both Damon and Teixeira out quickly, and then put ARod on with an intentional walk. Well, in a move that ended up not mattering, Giradi lifted ARod for pinch runner Freddy Guzman. Why? What if they did tie it? He was cool with taking his hottest hitter out of the line-up? That's a terrible idea! The crazy thing about it is, ARod isn't slow, and he's a fantastic base-runner, no doubt better than Guzman! Again, it didn't matter because even though the bases were loaded, ice-cold Nick Swisher popped up to end the game.

So more strikes against Giradi, and a their second loss. Not a big deal as the Yanks still lead 3-2, and are headed back to the Bronx for a rainy Saturday showdown. I do want Giradi to do well and lead this team to their 27th championship, but the growing pains are hard to watch, and its extremely easy to get second guessed in this situation. Heck, we've done it with Scioscia, the game's best. He just came out on top this time.