Alex Rodriguez had only one hit (1-for-6) in yesterday’s 9-6 extra-innings victory over the Minnesota Twins, but it was a very big and clutch hit, indeed. A-Rod blasted a long homer over the center-field fence in the top of the 12th, to break the 6-6 tie at the time, that gave the Bombers a 7-6 lead.

Ivan Rodriguez followed A-Rod’s blast, with a double; and, then, Xavier Nady added some insurance, by hitting his 6th homerun as a Yankee, to cap-off the scoring on this night, 9-6 in favor of the New York Yankees.

Johnny Damon, (3-for-6), led off the game with a homerun, to give the Yankees an early, 1-0 lead. Damon’s three hits tonight, upped his league-leading batting average to .325; and, sent a message, that if the Yankees are going to make the playoffs, Johnny Damon has to be in the lineup in all of the Yanks remaining 42 games.

The Twins took the lead, 2-1, in the bottom of the 2nd, on back-to-back sac-flies, by, Brian Buscher and Adam Everett.

Scoring from third, with less than two outs, has been a problem for the Yankees this season, and hopefully, the Yankees took some notes from the Twins on how easy it is to get the runner home from third when the batter just focuses on hitting a long fly-ball to the outfield, as opposed to trying to power the ball into the seats.

Small Ball by the Minnesota Twins has kept them in the pennant race all year.

The Yankees battled back in the 4th inning, when Nady drove home, Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi, on a hard hit double in the left-centerfield gap, for the 3-2 Yankees lead.

The Twins tied the score, 3-3, with a run in the bottom of the 4th; but, a RBI single by Derek Jeter (3-for-5), that drove home Jose Molina in the 5th, regained the lead for the Yankees, 4-3.

The Yankees knocked out Twins starter, Nick Blackburn, in the middle of the 5th inning, after he allowed, 4 runs, on 6 hits, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. 

The Bombers increased their lead to, 5-3, on a force-play RBI by Abreu in the top of the 7th.

Meanwhile, Yankees starter, Mike Mussina, was pitching a good game into the 7th inning, but, this was not one of Mussina’s best outings. He still held the Twins to only three runs, on 8 hits, one walk, and 5 strikeouts, through the end of the 7th inning.

In the top of the 8th, the Yanks plated another run to make the score, 6-3.

Then, as the game entered the bottom of the 8th inning, my thoughts were brought back to this past Saturday’s game in L.A., the second game of the three-game series that the Angels swept the Yankees.

Dan Giese was pitching a brilliant game throughout 6 innings, allowing the Angels only one run, on 3 hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. The Yankees were leading at the time, 3-1, after scoring one run in the top of the 7th. Dan Giese had only thrown 83 pitches in his 6 innings of work, and was clearly in command of the Angel batters in this game.

But, Joe Girardi elected to go to the bullpen; and, by now, everybody knows what the result was. Jose Veras replaced Giese to start the bottom of the 7th inning, and promptly gave up two runs that tied the score, 3-3, thus depriving Dan Giese of a possible win in this game.

Then, the flood gates opened up “very wide”, in the bottom of the 8th, as the Angels scored 8 runs off relivers, Edwar Ramirez and David Robertson, that blew the Yankees away, 11-4, in this very damaging loss.

Once again, it was the “pitch-count” that determined a managers decision, in this case, Joe Girardi of the Yankees, to remove a starting pitcher from the game — way too soon — when the pitcher is throwing a great game, and delivering a outstanding pitching performance.

Well, in last night’s Yankees vs. Twins game, the dreaded “pitch-count” reared it’s ulgy head one more time.

Mike Mussina had thrown 103 pitches after 7 innings [a little over the “mystical” 100-pitch count number]. And, almost as if by rote, the decision was made to take the starter [Mussina] out of the game.

Every time this happens, I keep asking: Why? … Why? … Why? 

It’s good to see that the all-time great pitcher, Nolan Ryan, who is now V.P. of Basball Operations for the Texas Rangers, also agees that the “100-pitch count” is “so-overrated”, that he has ordered all managers and coaches throughout the entire Texas Rangers Organization to stop being so strict in regards to pitch-counts.

Ryan wants to build-up the arm strength of the starters by having them pitch longer in games that they start [staying in games 7-8-9 innings], and throwing more in the range of 115-125 pitchers per start. This will also put less pressure on the middle relievers in the bullpen(s), which have been very ineffective throughout all of baseball in recent years.

Good for Nolan Ryan. I hope other teams [including the New York Yankees] follow Mr. Ryan’s thought process on the “over-reliance” of pitch-counts.

Anyway, Mike Mussina, who was looking for his 16th win in this game, and had a 6-3 lead through 7 innings, was replaced by Damaso Marte, who started the bottom of the 8th.

In my view, based on the importance of this “must-win” game, and the fact that the Yankees bullpen has not pitched too well over the last few weeks, Girardi should have let Mussina pitch the 8th inning. Mussina earned the right to take the mound in the 8th to protect his start, and possible 16th win of the season. Also, the way Mussina has been pitching as compared to the inconsistency of the bullpen — I would much rather take my chances with Mussina on the mound.

Marte was hit hard in the 8th inning, giving up two hits while retiring only one batter. This forced Girardi to go to the pen again in this inning, to bring Mariano Rivera into the game for a five-out save.

We can never question Joe Girardi bringing Mariano into a game at any time, but in this case, I think, if Mussina stayed in the game to pitch the 8th, and Rivera entered the 9th for the save, the Yankees would have won this game without going into extra innings.

As it turned out, Mariano gave up a three-run homer to Delmon Young, that tied the score, 6-6. This was Rivera’s first blown-save of the year, and the way this game was going — it looked like it was going to be another tough loss for the Bronx Bombers on this road trip.

It was interesting, also, to watch [on the Yes Network] Mariano Rivera in the dugout after that game-tying inning was over. You could see how “upset” Mariano was with himself, looking up at the ceiling in the dugout, and down to the ground.

Ian Kennedy, take note. The “Great Mariano” was visibly “upset” about his poor performance yesterday.

Mariano Rivera did pitch a scoreless 9th; Jose Veras (3-1), the winning pitcher, pitched scoreless innings in the 10th and 11th; and, after the 12th innng heroics by A-Rod and Nady, Edwar Ramirez closed out the 9-6 Yankees victory, throwing a scoreless bottom of the 12th, for his first “save” of the year.

This was a “Big Win”, as they all are, for the Yankees at this time in the season. But, also, it was a little disappointing that Mike Mussina was not allowed to pitch the bottom of the 8th inning, to protect the 6-3 lead at the time, as he was going for his 16th win.

The Dan Giese start against the Angels; and, Mike Mussina’s start [yesterday] vs. the Twins, hopefully, will at least start the process of the Yankees re-thinking their approach to the “pitch-count” for starting pitchers in their Organization.

Following the lead of Nolan Ryan, on the “pitch-count” issue, would be a successful approach to take. 

Edit: Thursday, August, 14, 2008  —  The New York Yankees lost the final game of the three-game series against the Minnesota Twins, 4-2. This game was also the final game of a very brutal, 10-Game Road Trip for the Bronx Bombers.

The Yankees split the four-game series against the Rangers, (2-2), in Texas. Then, the Yanks were swept by the Angels in all three games they played in L.A.; and, finally, lost two out of three vs. the Minnesota Twins.

So, on a trip that the Yankees really needed to go [at least], 7-3 … The Bombers, finished the trip with a 3-7 record.

The Yankees have the day off on Thursday, August 14th; and, then return to the Bronx for a three-game weekend series against the K.C. Royals at Yankee Stadium. There are only 41 games remaining in the 2008 season, so these games vs. the Royals are very important [as are all the remaining games the Yankees play]. Time is running out, and the Playoffs are looking further and further away, each day, for the New York Yankees.

AL EAST STANDINGS (as of Thursday, August 14, 2008)

Tampa Bay Rays       72 – 47  .605    —

Boston Red Sox         70 – 51  .579   3.0

New York Yankees    64 – 57  .529   9.0