The Genius Maker #8

We are in first place…and 4.5 games ahead of the Red Sox!

It is always good to jump out to an early lead and ARod’s 3 run homer did just that. I would like to see us keep tacking on runs all game, but that is a bit picky. I thought Burnett pitched well all night. He struggled with a ton of pitches in the first 2 innings (I think the total was 50), but I think it was more a good job of hitting by laying off close pitches and fouling off good ones by Baltimore.

Once again, Girardi seems to be inconsistent in his use of pitchers/players. As you know I had an issue with him taking out CC after CC had retired 17 straight batters and then we ended up letting Soriano who was off give the game away. The “excuse” was that CC had thrown too many pitches…well yesterday, Burnett entered the 7th inning having thrown somewhere about 95 pitches. I was in favor of sending Burnett out there; I was also ok with him staying in the game after he allowed a double. I was still ok with leaving him in the game after he threw a wild pitch. After the homer I was a little torn, but didn’t have an issue with Girardi leaving Burnett in as he still only had thrown 103 pitches. 6 pitches later he walked the Baltimore batter (Andino) and it was clear he was coming out. Not only had he thrown 110 pitches, but he had lost it. However, shockingly (or maybe with Girardi this should be expected?) Girardi let Burnett continue to pitch. After a 2 run homer that put the game into only a 3 run lead Girardi took Burnett out. Again, I have no idea what is going through Girardi’s head sometimes and his excuses he gives to the media are just insulting. He leaves Burnett, who had clearly lost it, in the game after 110 pitches, but he takes CC out when he had retired 17 straight batters and thrown 104? Very inconsistent and illogical as most sane people would take a struggling guy out who threw more pitches than another guy who was cruising.

Other notes:

Gardner was thrown out by a lot yesterday, it was a great throw, but Jeter should have protected him as he did not get a good jump.

Burnett threw about 15 changeups yesterday and they were very effective. I think this is a great 3rd pitch for him as it makes everything else work well. He struggled with his command of his curve, although he did throw some good ones and in the past when that happened he would really get into trouble. Now with the change, he has a lot more to work with and setup pitches.

Good job by Robertson, Soriano and the Rivera…

We got some bad news at it appears the MRI on Feliciano’s shoulder came back with trouble. Not confirmed as of yet, but he may be out for awhile. With Logan not being as sharp this is a big concern. I was counting on Feliciano to be our lefty specialist guy in key spots. It seems like we are snake bitten on the lefties. Maybe we get lucky with Marte later in the year or maybe Feliciano will only be out for a month?