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Yankees Sore Losers In Weekend Series With Marlins
Seems that the Marlins taking two from the Yankees is just a bit too much to bear. Joe Girardi and the Yankees officially filed a protest to dispute the outcome of the game on Sunday, FOX reports.
Seems Fredi tricked himself with his moves: in the top of the 8th Chris Coghlan was slated to come out of LF for Alejandro De Aza, who batted for Reynel Pinto in a double switch. De Aza never came into the game and with Coghlan in LF, once Leo Nunez threw a pitch, Girardi came out of the Yankees dugout to protest the game. The Marlins had a 6-3 lead at the time.
Seems the intrigue was for naught as the Marlins held on to win 6-5 and arguably, it wasn’t because of any unfair advantage brought on by the mix up. In fact, Girardi joked he would like to uphold the protest and retain the two runs they gained to drop the lead from 6-3 to 6-5. A ruling will come this week about the matter but it should not overturn the result. Just seems like the Yankees, even if they have just cause, really are just being a bit sour about the result of this weekend’s series with the Fish. Stay tuned to see if the Yankees can rob a result from the Marlins, but it looks highly unlikely at this stage.
Double J Astounds Yankees
Josh Johnson matched AJ Burnett pitch for pitch tonight in what shaped up to be an old-fashioned pitching duel. Of course, the story line was AJ returns to Miami (with Joe Girardi, of course) to face his former team. It is quite obvious that AJ never liked the front office here – much like his current manager – yet, that is beside the point.
JJ got the win while only allowing run run in 7 innings. Only three hits were given up and at one point Johnson retired 10 batters in a row. He seemingly sawed off the Yankees’ bats.
Marlins fans know how good JJ has been. He is quickly becoming one of the top pitchers in all of baseball – his mid 2 ERA is sinking each time out it seems and he continues to string along quality starts, getting to the 7th with as much frequency as your average beer chugger attending games in the stands. Clark Spencer, of the Miami Herald, speculates that the Yankees are now foaming at the mouth to snatch up Josh Johnson – and that he will be one player that won’t make it to the 2012 coming out party for the Marlins franchise as they cut the ribbon on the new stadium.
The Marlins, of course, need to make JJ a priority like they did with Hanley. Right now, the Marlins have the makings of another great rotation – the likes of which won them a title in 2003. Dare I say, this staff is better than that staff though. Josh Johnson, Chris Volstad, Andrew Miller, Ricky Nolasco and Sean West can all win double digits. Volstad and Johnson have #1 stuff while Miller could shake out and be a strong #2 guy on this staff. West is one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, showing off his skills at future games each year. Who knows what the staff looks like in 2012, but right now this team is on the verge of getting back on track with only 2 more losses than wins and sitting 4 games behind the Phillies.
Marlins Prepare for New Yorker Fans
This recent set of games has been a reunion of sorts. Remember back in 2003 when the Marlins defeated the Yankee$ in 6 games to take the whole enchilada? That’s ok, no one in the media seems to remember either – and why would they? There is no one left from that team that is still on the Marlins.
Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett and Brad Penny (huh?) are now all on the Red Sox. We just ran into them and they took two games from the Fish before letting them escape town with a merciful 2-1 rain shortened win. It is good to see the old fish having success, even if it is with another team.
Which brings us to another ex-Marlin, Joe Girardi. He brings his Yankees to town this weekend for a Father’s Day super-duper matchup series. And every New Yorker posing in Miami will be out in full force complete with gold chains, overly tight black shirts and douche-like hair and attitudes. Probably sporting a Yankee cap or two with alternate colors, like orange and red or something.
Despite the New Yorkers coming out like cockroaches, is there any other reason to not like the Yankees coming to town? At least the front office will have a chance to make some cash this weekend, probably upwards of 30% of their total revenue on the season – so as a lowly Marlins fan, I would like to thank the Yankees for keeping our doors open.
But let’s get back to Girardi for a second – should we be rooting for this guy? After all, he came to Miami to take over in the post-McKeon era and got started by implementing some Yankee rules like no facial hair and arguing with the team management. Jeffrey Loria, by the way, was a part-owner in the Yankees at one time and hails from NYC as an art dealer. Girardi though won 2006 manager of the year with the Marlins, leading the team to a 78-84 record. After a public blowup with the front office at a game, allegedly telling owner Jeffrey Loria to calm down after yelling at an ump for his pitch calling, Girardi was gone.
Seemed like Girardi was leading the Marlins up the totem pole again giving us a credible manager at the helm. I for one was extremely excited the day we got Girardi as a manager for this franchise – he was one of the “young” managing talents mentioned around baseball. Then there was his player management – he almost ended Josh Johnson’s career early on by bringing him back out after a rain delay. The rain delay was an hour and in a game against the Mets that proved crucial for the Marlins that season. To be fair, Mets’ pitcher Oliver Perez was also brough back into th game. Johnson, however, would get Tommy John surgery in the offseason and that was one of the reasons cited for Girardi’s dismissal. Ironically, the Yankees will be facing Johnson this weekend.
It was a mixed year for Girardi. He was given his first opportunity to manage, and in the National League where played most of his years, but instead of coming in with a team that could contend the players where scrapped down to a $15M payroll that season just after his committment to the franchise was made. Nevertheless, the focus was on winning with that ballclub.
So this weekend we get to relive the memories of the litle Marlins overcoming the massive Yankee force in the playoffs (remember, they got there with Aaron “Bleeping” Boone’s home run miracle – who eventually played for the Yankees himself). But we also get to remember that most of those players are gone and the manager that once started here is back in the visiting dugout. We will be constantly reminded of it by the charming fans from New York that always seem to come out to games here in Miami just for the sake of torturing the rest of us who live in south Florida. Play ball.
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