Do you think the Yankees lost yesterday because Joe Girardi has been messing with the lineup too much and putting the team out of rhythm? Well, Filip Bondy of the Daily News does, and, on an unrelated note, he also thinks Girardi sounds like a hockey coach with all his nicknames.
And I couldn’t disagree more, with both of Bondy’s conjectures.
Bondy’s first mistake was neglecting to mention why Girardi used backups yesterday. 
1. He used Marcus Thames over Lance Berkman because Berkman is terrible vs. lefties and Thames is great vs. lefties. It seems Bondy would’ve preferred the .185 hitter over the .328 hitter.
2. Brett Gardner had played 14 straight days and Girardi really wants to get a good look at Austin Kearns now to judge how much he should be used down the stretch. If anything, a day off for Gardner keeps his legs fresh, which he’s complained about this year.
Another thing Bondy forgot to mention was the Yankees were facing Jon Lester. He hadn’t allowed a hit until the fifth inning — and that hit belonged to one of the subs! Of the six Yankee hits yesterday, two came from the subs.
…he benched Brett Gardner, whose fleetness of foot can't change games while he's sitting until the eighth.
This is true, but when Gardner did get his chance in the eighth, when the Yankees really needed a steal, he couldn’t judge what pitch to go on — against a righty. He should’ve left on the first pitch because no Red Sox catcher is going to catch him stealing.
Sometimes it seems Brian Cashman has brought in half the Western hemisphere to audition for the roles of Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, who might still be here but for several measly million dollars.
That was his lede paragraph. He says this without acknowledging Gardner and Curtis Granderson have played up to, if not better, than last year’s duo thus far.
Girardi manages by the book and does an excellent job of keeping his older players fresh. I guess he, the manager of the team with the best record in baseball, has some things to learn from Bondy, the writer for the Daily News.
I can’t wait to see what arguments Bondy will come up with if Mark Teixeira misses a few games this week.
I think Bondy felt like dissing Girardi because his name is already in Girardi-nickname form. He’s probably upset about that.
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Apparently, another Daily News reporter wrote an unreasonable column for this morning. Brien of It’s About the Money, Stupid took it down.
