Huh?

Streak Over

After the ugliest of losses on Friday night, a nice win yesterday to stop the losing streak. We never do much against 68-year-old Tim Wakefield, but we did enough, thanks to Igawa's stepping in after Karstens had his leg broken by a line drive by the first batter of the game. Perhaps the key with Igawa is not knowing what day he's going to pitch -- but with Karstens gone Igawa is going to have to find a way to pitch well when he does know when his turn is.

And after a brutal 1/3 of an inning on Friday, and having to listen to McCarver and Buck deliver what sounded like Mariano's eulogy, Mariano came in and overmatched the Boston hitters he faced, allowing a broken-bat single to Varitek, and then inducing two weak grounders and a popup to close out the game. A shame he can't pitch against Boston any more, isn't it, Joe? Tim?

Losers.


Joe Is Safe?

I'm totally not buying that Torre's job was in jeopardy if we had gotten swept this weekend. This is the sort of story that "sources" feed gullible sportswriters and which said hacks are all too happy to regurgitate to a credulous fan base.

George is more out of it than into it, and Cashman for reasons unknown to me continues to think that Torre is still the manager he was six years ago. His job wasn't in jeopardy.

But what I didn't need to hear was Joe and Tim's continual apologizing for Torre's brutal handling of the pitching thus far. I understand as well as anyone that the starters haven't been so good and that there's been injuries. But what Torre has failed to see is that April isn't August, that the fifth and sixth innings aren't "late" and that managing these games like they are playoff games can't possibly work when he should have seen how his chewing up the bullpen last year killed us.

And, dirty little secret -- our starters, even with the injuries, etc., aren't the worst. Every team is going to have a run where the starters don't get very deep into games, but the way Torre manages, the starters know that even with a four-run lead, allowing one damn base runner in the seventh inning (or even the sixth, often) is going to get them yanked. What a great way to have to pitch! Not!

Many of our pitching problems are manager-inflicted. And how many extra games have we won as a result of Torre's scorched-earth managing in April? Versus how many extra we will lose over the course of a season?

(I theorized, jokingly, to iris, that perhaps there is a donation made to some charity every time Joe makes a pitching change . . . . or that AT&T (sponsor of the "AT&T Call to the Bullpen") is heavy in Joe's portfolio.)

Joe's job is safe. That's as certain as Mike Meyers showing up in the sixth inning for a "key matchup."