OAKLAND — Desperate times call for desperate measures.
The Yankees have certainly been desperate for wins lately as they continue to climb out of the 9-17 hole they dug during the first month of the season.
That desperation was on display Wednesday and Thursday when Joe Girardi decided to pull two starting pitchers in the midst of dominant performances, turning a lead over to his towering trio of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman.
Let’s be clear about one thing: You can make a legitimate argument that Betances, Miller and Chapman are the three best relievers in the game. Any manager would love to have two of them in their bullpen, let alone all three.
On most nights, using the threesome to lock down the final three innings makes perfect sense.
But for a manager whose team has struggled to get distance from its starters, Girardi’s decisions were curious. Nathan Eovaldi was at 85 pitches and had retired 18 in a row when he was pulled Wednesday. Ivan Nova had thrown only 62 pitches in six innings Thursday when Girardi yanked him.
Back in spring training, Girardi was the one that first brought up the idea of using two of the big three on any given night, leaving at least one of the relievers available for the next game.
There was a belief that we would see all three pitch in the same game on a number of occasions, but that figured to be on nights when the starter was spent, having grinded his way through the first six, or perhaps not even lasted that long.
For a team desperately — there’s that word again — trying to find stability in the rotation, taking the ball away from two guys throwing their best starts of the season seems counterproductive, even if both games ultimately wound up in the win column.
“I’m going to use them when I feel the time is right. That’s my call,” Girardi said. “I do want more distance, but when we talked about more distance, we were talking about getting them into the sixth. We’ve done a better job of that as of late and we’ll continue to stretch them out more as we need it.”
Wednesday night’s decision was about doing anything he could to avoid a sweep at the hands of the lowly Diamondbacks. Thursday? It’s hard for me to argue in favor of pulling a pitcher who had barely broken a sweat through six, yet Girardi felt compelled to do so.
“I don’t second-guess myself; maybe a lot of other people do,” Girardi said. “There’s a reason we put them together down there and it’s for games like (Wednesday and Thursday). We didn’t put them together for games that are 6-1 or 7-1, but when you’ve got 3-1 and 2-1 and they’re close games and you have guys that strike people out, it’s much harder to score.”
So the onus is now on the offense to score enough runs for Girardi to feel comfortable leaving his starter in for the seventh, no matter how well they’re pitching?
Girardi’s greatest strength since taking over has been his use of the bullpen, mostly sticking to his rules prohibiting relievers from pitching three days in a row or four out of five. Why not save one of those arms on a night when your starter is rolling?
The situation will be different come playoff time — should the Yankees somehow get there, of course. As the Royals showed the past two years, getting six from your starter before turning a lead over to the three-headed monster is a winning formula.
Availability is not an issue in October, however. Teams rarely play three days in a row, giving relievers plenty of time to rest and recover for the next game. The Yankees are in the midst of 20 games without an off-day, a grueling stretch they’ll repeat following Monday’s off day.
That’s 40 games in 41 days. How many of them can Girardi use Betances, Miller and Chapman without burning them out? And if he sticks to his rules, how many games might the Yankees cost themselves without the services of even one of their late-inning specialists?
Girardi’s latest mantra has been “We’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow,” but at some point he has to realize tomorrow’s game counts as much as today’s. There’s a way to maximize your chances to win both, and there’s nothing desperate about that.