ALDS Game 5 - Where was Jesus Montero? An Objective Question for Yankee Faithful
I'm a Phillies fan and I make my allegiance very clear but I try to be a baseball fan first with this blog and intend to always look at things objectively. Following an exciting and supremely intense win or go home game 5 between the Yankees and Tigers, there are obviously a lot of questions swirling about the direction of the New York Yankees. What's going to happen to CC Sabathia? Will the Yankees pursue Yu Darvish? Can they woo CJ Wilson away from Texas? Has Jorge Posada played his last game in Yankee pinstripes?
All of those questions are valid and important but not entirely time sensitive. What's on my mind - what happened in game 5? It is fairly evident that the Yankees were doomed by untimely hitting in game 5 and so knowing that, the question that I have, which has not been asked elsewhere, is where was Jesus Montero?
I'm certainly an outsider looking in but in a close game that called for a timely hit, I see no reason why Montero could not sniff an at bat. The rookie batted .328/.406/.590 in limited time during the regular season and came up with two big hits in game four (going 2-2 with an RBI). Maybe he's not as seasoned as some of the other guys that were taking at bats in big spots last night but I know that I would have been scared to death to see him step to the plate against my team in any situation where a base hit scores two and puts the Yankees ahead (can you imagine the reception he would have received from the Yankee crowd? I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it).
Joe Girardi deserves a ton of credit for keeping the Yankees in it last night. He was forced into his bullpen in the third inning, and he definitely had a ton of adversity to overcome. Finding the right mix to limit the Tigers to one run over those final six frames has to be considered a victory but he didn't make Leyland pay for not using Verlander. I wonder if things would have been different if Sweet Baby Jesus would have gotten his chance to shine.
All of those questions are valid and important but not entirely time sensitive. What's on my mind - what happened in game 5? It is fairly evident that the Yankees were doomed by untimely hitting in game 5 and so knowing that, the question that I have, which has not been asked elsewhere, is where was Jesus Montero?
I'm certainly an outsider looking in but in a close game that called for a timely hit, I see no reason why Montero could not sniff an at bat. The rookie batted .328/.406/.590 in limited time during the regular season and came up with two big hits in game four (going 2-2 with an RBI). Maybe he's not as seasoned as some of the other guys that were taking at bats in big spots last night but I know that I would have been scared to death to see him step to the plate against my team in any situation where a base hit scores two and puts the Yankees ahead (can you imagine the reception he would have received from the Yankee crowd? I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it).
Joe Girardi deserves a ton of credit for keeping the Yankees in it last night. He was forced into his bullpen in the third inning, and he definitely had a ton of adversity to overcome. Finding the right mix to limit the Tigers to one run over those final six frames has to be considered a victory but he didn't make Leyland pay for not using Verlander. I wonder if things would have been different if Sweet Baby Jesus would have gotten his chance to shine.
As a Yankee fan, I find myself asking the same thing. It would've been difficult to squeeze him in I guess, since Girardi felt the pangs of guilt and forced in Posada (credit to him, he had a good series). But I would've accepted putting Posada at 1B and benching the mega offensive zero that is Teixeria and using Montero at the DH. I just don't understand why a manager would be ok with having 4-5-6 in the batting order spend 5 games to bat .150.
ReplyDeleteI guess a bigger question is why Girardi batted Arod 4th when he was coming off injury and batted .167 the final month going into the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteI don't know enough about the team but I might have just used him and wasted a move on a defensive substitution if I had to... Let him hit for Swisher or Gardner or whoever and then use someone else for defense, if need be. I just feel like you have to give the kid a shot.
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