Burnett Saves Girardi, Wang, and The Bullpen

Columns — By Ian Collier on April 14, 2009 10:42 pm

Monday’s nightmare outing by Chien-Ming Wang had a big trickle down effect.  It exhausted the bullpen, it got a bunch of humorless killjoys angry at Nick Swisher, and, perhaps most importantly, it exposed Joe Girardi’s refusal to supply the pitching staff with a solid contingency plan.  Look, it’s clear that the Yankees have a deep, vastly improved rotation (at least once Wang pulls it together).  But that fact doesn’t make it unnecessary for Girardi to arm his bullpen with at least one pitcher capable of throwing multiple innings.

Having Albaladejo toss 3 innings last night was inadvisable, though his ability to do so was admirable and cushioned the blow of having Wang fail to record even a single out in the 2nd inning.  We saw this last year with Ross Ohlendorf – because Girardi didn’t stock his pen with a long man, he miscast Ohlendorf as one and in essence set him up to fail.  Ohlendorf hadn’t been properly stretched out in spring training and consequently his lengthier outings were unsatisfactory.  I’d hate to see the same fate befall Albaladejo – he isn’t a long reliever, and any time he can give you more than three outs, that ought to to be considered the exception, rather than the rule.  If Brett Tomko or Alfredo Aceves or Dan Giese had made the big club, they could have provided the Yanks with 3-5 innings of garbage time ball that would have spared the team’s short relievers from being overworked.

This was an issue on Monday – imagine how much worse it would have been had AJ Burnett come out Tuesday and thrown out a stinker.  Instead, Burnett was dominant from the first inning on; he had a brief hiccup in the 7th, the only inning he allowed so much as a hit in, but beyond that frame he was lights out.  And, more importantly, he kept his pitch count reasonable and was able to give the team not only quality, but length as well, going 8 fantastic innings.  He gave the Yankees precisely what they needed – a lengthy outing to give the overworked pen a night off.  Burnett earned the respect of his team tonight – particularly in the 4th when he buzzed Longoria’s tower after Garza had knocked down Swisher in the previous half-inning.  He also took a huge step in gaining the trust of a fan base that harbored fears he was Pavano Redux.  And he bailed out his manager from having to face the music about failing to properly equip his team with the right personnel – for the second year in a row.  It’s a disturbing trend.

Some notes:

- Brett Gardner had two huge hits in this game.  The 7-2 final won’t tell you that, but Gardner’s lead off double in the 8th set the Yankees up to break a 2-2 tie, and his two-out double in the ninth gave the Yankees some much needed breathing room and allowed Jeter to come to bat.  Jeter belted a three-run homer and sealed the deal, but it was Gardner’s timely hitting that was most important in this victory.  And he drove the ball!  Twice!  It was like March all over again.  Keep it up, dude.

- Mark Teixeira’s sacrifice fly in the 8th inning broke a 2-2 tie and put the Yankees ahead for good.  It was a great at-bat – from down 0-2, to 3-2, to getting a pitch to handle and putting it in play, Tex had a tremendous approach and did something that’s been increasingly rare in the past couple of seasons – he scored a runner from third with less than two outs.  As great as Giambi was, his low-contact approach wasn’t conducive to getting runners home in those spots.  Tex not only hits for tremendous power but makes a ton of contact, enabling him to post high slugging percentages and batting averages.  It’s a rare skill, and in this case it made a difference.

- Boy, the atmosphere in Tampa is different these days.  In only a year the building has gone from Yankee Stadium South to a decidedly partisan group of Rays fans.  The crowd was really into the game tonight, getting on the umpires for several close strike calls (or non-calls), particularly during the Teixeira at-bat.  That’s really nice to see.  The Rays are a franchise that has done things exactly the way they should be done.  They’ve never complained about payroll restraints or being stuck in the best division in baseball.  Instead they went about hiring the right people, making the right decisions in the draft, and spending money in smart places.  That the fans have embraced the team should be an inspiration to clubs like Kansas City, Washington, and Pittsburgh – if you build it, they will come.

- The MY9 radar gun had to be slow – Burnett looked to be throwing consistently harder than 90-92 and Bruney certainly was pumping fastballs in the 9th that looked to be in the mid-90′s.  In fact, Bruney’s last pitch, a high fastball blown by Evan Longoria, was clocked at 91 on television, while MLB.com’s Gameday had it at 95.  Generally the TV guns seem to be quick.  Just an inconsequential observation.  I’m full of them.

- And finally, baseball lost another one on Monday.  Harry Kalas, long-time Phillies play-by-play man, passed away at the age of 73 after collapsing in the booth prior to that afternoon’s game.  I went to school in Phildelphia and had the absolute privilege of listening to Mr. Kalas for four years – he truly was one of the best and most distinguishable baseball voices working.  Rather than making a name with obnoxious, gimmicky home run calls and gratuitous personal anecdotes, Mr. Kalas put the emphasis on the game of baseball.  In addition to being a one-of-a-kind announcer, Mr. Kalas was a tremendously nice guy – I know this from personal experience.  A good friend of mine grew up in the Philadelphia area and was stricken with cancer at a young age.  He recounted to me today how Harry called him when he was in the hospital, spoke to him for a while, and then mentioned him on-air during that night’s game.  Rest in peace, Mr. Kalas.

Tags: A.J. Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, Joe Girardi, Jonathan Albaladejo