CINCINNATI — Joe Girardi backed up his favorite phrase yesterday when he started Ramiro Pena at second base for the second game of a doubleheader against the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
“I believe in my guys. I really do,” the Yankees manager says constantly, and sometimes about players who aren’t worth that belief.
Yesterday, he proved it.
“I will put him out there every day,” Girardi said after Pena committed three fielding errors at third base in the first-game. which the Yankees won, 4-2.
Known for his soft hands and accurate throwing arm, Pena’s calling card is defense. Whatever he provides at the plate is a bonus. He went 0-for-3 and got hit by a pitch.
Yesterday, however, his arm threw balls away at first and home in the fifth inning when the Reds scored two unearned runs and tied the score, 2-2.
“It tailed a little at the end,” Pena said of the first miscue that hit Drew Stubbs in the neck leading off the inning.
The second error came when Pena’s throw home was short and skidded by Francisco Cervelli as Stubbs scored.
“I tried to get a perfect throw and I threw it down,” Pena said.
While the first two errors cost the Yankees, Pena’s third mistake — a Stubbs ground ball leading off the seventh — was erased by Freddy Garcia feeding Edgar Renteria a grounder that Pena turned into a 5-4-3 double play.
Pena also helped in the ninth when he went to his knees to make a backhanded stop on Scott Rolen’s one-out grounder off Mariano Rivera.
“That never happened to me,” Pena said of committing three errors in the game. “Not even in Little League.”
Girardi brushed off the brutal performance by Pena, who was at third so Alex Rodriguez could rest his beaten-up body.
“That was very uncharacteristic. ‘Nino’ plays great defense,” Girardi said. “It wasn’t his day.”
Fortunately for the Yankees, it didn’t cost them a loss.
