IIRC, the reason Torre did that was to save Wang’s arm.
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Whatever the reason, he decided not to pitch Wang. This year you could argue that he “learned” from that experience and decided that saving the season with your best pitcher on the mound was the way to go.

The point was to illustrate that pitching Wang over Hughes wasn’t some horrendous error the way it was characterized earlier in this thread.

Last year, in the exact same situation, everyone killed Joe for pitching Wright/Lidle over Wang in a potential elimination game.
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IIRC, the reason Torre did that was to save Wang’s arm.

dynastydays, are you saying that Phil Hughes should’ve gotten the Game 1 start? I don’t know about that. Wang was the team’s best pitcher all season long and, as jonm pointed out, had a 3.27 ERA in September. That’s hardly a cause for concern. Further, I don’t think anyone predicted that Wang would melt down in both games that he pitched.

As for not pitching Wang in Game 4, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to that question. Last year, in the exact same situation, everyone killed Joe for pitching Wright/Lidle over Wang in a potential elimination game. This year, he took Wang over Mussina in the same situation. It’s a damned if you do/damned if you don’t situation.

With the exception of a) not using Mo in Game 2 and b) using Joba too much in Game 3, I can’t fault anything Torre did in this year’s ALDS. The starters not named Pettitte pitched like crap and the hitters collectively stunk up the joint.

and i don’t wanna hear about how “politically” incorrect it would be to give hughes the start because thats why joe sucked at times… never rolled the dice… wanger could have used to extra rest and pitched game 3 at the stadium… basically if he went to rivera in game 2 the yanks could guaranteed a game 5 but he didnt, and starting a struggling tired wanger twice was the wrong move.

dyntasydays makes a good point about bringing Mo in. I think that probably Torre didn’t bring him in because he is very hesitant to bring his closer in too early when the Yankees are playing on the road. It always bothered me that Joe seemed to be so rigid about this.

The other point about Hughes/Wang is a situation that I think Joe handled right. Wang had a 3.27 ERA in September and Hughes had a 2.73 ERA in September. Both pitched well so you have to give the nod to the more experienced pitcher.

explain to me how the ebst reliever in the world isnt in a 1-0 must win game in the 8th witha runner on third when the current pitcher had already thrown a wild pitch and hit a batter… and then he scores on the second wild pitch. Jobas the man btu hes also 22 and was bothered by the bugs. you know that with mo, he’d hafta earn that tying run

Put me on the record as saying that if joe actually went with his best 2 pitchers at that point in the season he would have started hughes in game 1 and if he wasn’t an idiot he woulda pulled Joba for Mo with 2 out in 8th and runner on third ina 1-0 gamewhen Joba had already thrown a wild pitch and hit a batter. Im pretty sure in september Hughes was 4-1 with like a 2.16 era and wanger looked tired from the middle of august on.