Joel, I’m exhausted from pointing out these…inconsistencies…on the part of Torre. But you made my point for me. Even more galling is Torre’s claim that he planned to have Small pitch to that hitter all along, regardless of the base hit, because Leiter has been “struggling.” Kripes! Torre calls THAT performance “struggling” in light of Leiter’s previous 125 pitch performance which Torre had all of us dutifully suffer through? Torre is not only speaking in riddles but acting in riddles. Seems to be so many hidden agendas. Is he trying to take Leiter out of the rotation? Well, then just do it. Don’t set up Small so he can “come to the rescue” and show Leiter the error of his ways. That completely back-fired and Torre is caught with his pants down…again!

You can’t pull Leiter after one base hit in the sixth and with a three run lead.

If Al Leiter is truly part of this rotation, then he has to be given a chance to work out of minor truoble–especially with an 85-pitch count. If the Yankees view him as only a 5 inning pitcher then he can’t be a part of this rotation because his starts put tremendous strain on the bullpen. Joe would have let all of our other starters (including Small) try to work out of the sixth with such a low pitch count.

The bullpen still imploded. But you lower the chances for disaster by getting as much as you can from a starter who is pitching decently.

The bottom third of the Yankees line-up basically means they’re playing a 6 inning game on “O” because they’re giving the other team 9 free outs a contest with that crew.

A painful loss, to put it mildly. Make that two in a row with blown late-inning leads. Sports radio in Boston this AM is playing the Sturtze WP over and over again and chuckling. So funny.

But back to baseball rather than stupid rivalries: Needless to say I watch quite a few Red Sox games up here. And I must say the difference between the teams has become quite striking. The quality of the at bats in the lower part of the Yankee order just pales in comparison. So many first-pitch swings from the Yanks in this series!