JOE Girardi confided yesterday that during troubled times some of the best encouragement comes from his wife, Kimberly. Perhaps one of her pep talks might be useful again after the way the Yankees went life-or-death with the lowly Royals before pulling out a 3-2 victory in 13 innings at the Stadium.
A win is a win, thanks to Brett Gardner’s single through the left side of the infield that scored Robinson Cano to end the marathon. But the Yankees still looked like a team barely hanging on to its season with a manager who needed a victory as much as his players.
“It doesn’t matter how we win as long as we win because we’ve been scuffling,” Girardi said.
Girardi said before the game there was no “magic formula” for salvaging the season.
“We have to do everything right to win,” he said. “We have to pitch. We have to play defense. We have to base run. We have to hit with runners in scoring position. We have to work the starter to try to knock him out early.”
He might have added the decisions by the manager must be productive, too. There were times yesterday when Girardi caused some head scratching, like why, with the score tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth and a runner on first with no outs, did Girardi not have Gardner bunt to advance Ivan Rodriguez? Gardner fouled off his first bunt attempt then fouled off a full swing before drawing a walk.
Like why, after the walk to Gardner, didn’t Girardi have Johnny Damon bunt the runners over? Instead, Damon struck out swinging. And Derek Jeter followed with an inning-ending double play. Threat over, on to the 10th.
“We tried it [Friday] night,” Girardi said. “[Damon] wasn’t comfortable doing it. I mean, it is what it is.”
Though Gardner delivered the game-winning hit in the 13th, the fact he abandoned the bunt in the ninth left many confused.
“He does have eight RBIs in limited opportunity,” Girardi said of Gardner, whose walk-off single was his second game-winning hit of the year. “He’s gotten some big hits for us already. He can create some havoc. He grinds out his at-bats.”
Earlier, Girardi elected not to go with closer Marino Rivera with the score tied in the top of the ninth, the same scenario that led to a 4-3 loss to the Royals on Friday night. Instead, he went with Edwar Ramirez. At the time it seemed Girardi might be reacting to Rivera’s well-documented history of struggling in tie games. But it became a moot point when Rivera came in to pitch flawlessly in the 10th and the 11th.
While those moves by Girardi could have been second-guessed, it should have never come to that. The Yankees were their own worst enemy, batting just 3-of-16 with runners in scoring position.
“Each one of us is trying to pick each other up and it probably weighs on us,” said Alex Rodriguez, who failed to produce with runners in scoring position in the fourth and the 12th.
For most of the game, it looked like the Yankees had stooped to the level of the lowly Royals. Just about everyone in pinstripes had a chance to give the Yankees the lead or win the game, but it took the rookie Gardner to finally deliver. Kimberly Girardi’s voice of reassurance was there in 1996, the first year her husband signed with the Yankees and hit just .243 over the first 19 games.
“I used to joke with her that it was her Knute Rockne speech that she gave me,” the manager said. He went on to average .294 for the season and anchor the Yankees’ run to a world championship.
Maybe another Rockne speech will help. At this point, it couldn’t hurt.