ANAHEIM, Calif. — The loss goes on Javier Vazquez’s ugly ledger, but it sits on manager Joe Girardi’s head.
Vazquez’s latest inept performance flushed an early lead, but the indecisiveness of the Yankees manager played a huge part in the Angels hanging an 8-4 defeat on the Yankees yesterday in front of 42,284 at Angel Stadium.
When Girardi didn’t trust his first instinct, Vazquez already had attempted to shower away a miserable 3 2/3-inning stint in which he gave up five runs, five hits and let a 3-0 advantage in the second inning vanish.
With runners at first and second in the seventh, two outs, the Angels leading, 5-4, and Kendry Morales at the plate, Girardi signaled catcher Francisco Cervelli to have lefty Damaso Marte intentionally walk Morales, a switch hitter who is better batting right-handed.
After the first pitch to Morales, Girardi took four steps out of the dugout and was going to bring righty David Robertson to finish the walk and go after the right-handed hitting Juan Rivera.
Before he got on the grass Girardi saw Alex Rodriguez headed to the mound. The manager turned back toward the dugout, talked with pitching coach Dave Eiland and signaled Cervelli the intential walk was off. But he kept Marte in the game.
“I probably should have stayed with my first instinct,” Girardi said. “The bottom line is none of us [is] perfect.”
Especially Marte.
The erratic reliever missed with the next two pitches and, at 3-0, Girardi had another chance to walk Morales. Instead, Cervelli called for a fastball up and out of the zone. However, Marte’s heater was center cut and Morales spanked it for a three-run homer.
“I should have put up ‘4’ again,” Girardi lamented. “I just messed up. Your first instinct is your best instinct.”
Marte insisted the bizarre situation didn’t confuse him, that Morales was simply waiting for a fastball.
“We could have thrown a better pitch,” Cervelli said. “At 3-0 we didn’t have to come to the middle of the plate. We have to be careful, but it was right down the middle of the plate and he hit it. Right now he is one of the very best hitters in baseball.”
According to baseballreference.com, Morales had 31 career plate appearances with a 3-0 count and drew 31 walks. Now he has one hit, a back-breaking homer.
Girardi’s head is where you can put the loss, but Vazquez also is heavily responsible for the Yankees’ second loss in three games.
“It’s kind of embarrassing the way I am throwing the ball right now,” said Vazquez, who is 1-3 with a 9.00 ERA and clearly the weakest wing in a very strong rotation. “It’s frustrating to give up a 3-0 lead.”
The cushion was provided by Jorge Posada’s two-run homer off Scott Kazmir in the second and Derek Jeter drove in the third run by hitting into a fielder’s choice instead of a double play.
Vazquez used a double play to end the first, walked two in the second with one out but stranded both and fanned three in the third, the inning when Bobby Abreu hit his 10th career homer off Vazquez.
The fourth started well when Hideki Matsui flied out, but Howie Kendrick drove in a run with a single and Brandon Wood, the No. 9 hitter with a .113 average, plated two with a double to left that barely eluded a diving Marcus Thames.
Robinson Cano’s leadoff homer in the sixth made it 5-4, but it was the closest the Yankees got. The Angels bullpen didn’t allow a hit and just one baserunner across the final 3 2/3nnings.
So, the “L” goes to Vazquez, and put it on Girardi’s tab.
