Two teams began the post-season with rookie managers. Now there is one.
Alex Cora and the Red Sox are playing the Astros in the American League Championship Series. Aaron Boone and the Yankees have gone home.
The Red Sox, under Cora, have achieved more than they did last year under John Farrell. The Yankees have already fallen short of what they achieved last year under Joe Girardi.
The Yankees fired Girardi a year ago supposedly not because they didn’t make it past the A.L. championship series but because of what they heard from the clubhouse. Girardi, officials said, did not connect with the young players. “You weren’t in the clubhouse,” one executive told me when I questioned the validity of the Girardi dismissal.
With a different manager, someone who could better connect with the young players, the Yankees could advance farther in the post-season, the managerial change suggested. But the schedule has reached the A.L.C.S., and the Yankees are on vacation.
Brian Cashman is not on vacation. When I called him Wednesday, with questions about Boone and Girardi, he wasn’t in his office, his secretary said, but she didn’t say he was on vacation. She said she would give him the message.
As I expected, Cashman didn’t call back, leaving these questions left unanswered: I wanted to ask Cashman if the Yankees’ performance under Boone met the general manager’s expectations. Was the division-series loss to the Red Sox better than the A.L.C.S. loss to the Astros? Were Boone’s connections to and communications with the young players better than Girardi’s? If they were, how did that improvement translate into achievement on the field? Did the Boone Yankees do better than the Girardi Yankees?
Was Cashman’s boss, Hal Steinbrenner, the managing general partner, pleased with the season’s outcome? If not, was he more pleased than he was a year ago? Since Steinbrenner gave Cashman the authority to make the manager decision, how did Steinbrenner feel about Cashman’s decision? Does Steinbrenner believe Boone’s presence improved clubhouse communications? If the answer to that question is yes, why does Steinbrenner feel the improved communications didn’t result in a better season, certainly a better post-season?
These questions and others, however, will go unanswered. The Yankees’ season is finished while the Red Sox continue playing. Like the Yankees, the Red Sox went to the playoffs last year but nevertheless fired their manager. Unlike the Yankees, the Red Sox this year gained a major league-high 108 wins and are still in the running for the World Series.
The Red Sox are alive in spite of Cora’s use of his pitchers. Although what he did in the ninth inning of Game 4 was understandable, he did leave himself open to second guessing.
It was the ninth inning and the Red Sox needed three outs to preserve their 4-1 advantage. Chris Sale, Boston’s best starting pitcher, had easily secured three outs in the eighth, dispatching three batters with 13 pitches.
Cora had obviously brought in Sale to help shut down the Yankees and end the series in that fourth game. Why, then, not let Sale pitch the ninth as well? Cora had a two-word answer: Craig Kimbrel.
The Red Sox closer, Kimbrel was fresh and ready to pitch; the ninth inning belonged to him. But Kimbrel was not without his shaky moments. This was no time for a shaky moment. What should Cora do?
The manager had another factor to consider. If the Red Sox lost that game and had to play a Game 5 two days hence, Sale was to be his starting pitcher. The 13-pitch relief outing in that game was one thing. If he stayed in and pitched the ninth and it became an extended inning, that would be another. Cora could not afford to risk losing Sale for a Game 5.
So Sale stayed in the dugout, and Kimbrel came in from the bullpen. As it turned out, it was shaky moment time.
Aaron Judge walked on four pitches, and Didi Gregorius singled. Giancarlo Stanton was the next batter, and one swing from him could make Cora look very bad as a rookie manager. Kimbrel, however, struck out Stanton, then made Cora look something other than great by walking Luke Voit and hitting Neil Walker with a pitch, forcing in a run.
Gary Sanchez was the next batter, and he was capable of ruining Cora’s week with one swing. Sanchez did swing and sent a fly to deep left-center, where it became a sacrifice and narrowed the Boston lead to 4-3.
Gleyber Torres was now the batter with two out, and Kimbrel, with his 28th pitch, induced him to hit a grounder to Eduardo Nunez at third. Nunez threw to Steve Pearce for the apparent final out of the 4-3 game, but the Yankees weren’t done yet. They challenged the out call, and the replay umpires in Chelsea upheld the out call, and Cora got away with a questionable decision.
Boone was not so fortunate. His pitching moves left him open to second guesses, and the Yankees lost the games in which he was questioned. He was criticized for leaving starter Luis Severino in too long in the 16-1 third-game atrocity and for leaving CC Sabathia in too long or starting him at all in Game 4.
The Yankees’ relief corps, it was suggested, was strong enough and Sabathia questionable enough recently to borrow from the Tampa Bay Rays’ plan and eschew a starting pitcher in favor of an opener followed by a series of relievers.
That novel strategy hasn’t made it into Cashman’s playbook and wasn’t available for Boone’s use. Cashman is running the team off and on the field, and that’s why he really fired Girardi, who was too much a veteran manager to listen to Cashman telling him what to do.
Maybe if Cashman had returned my call, he would have told me all about his strategy that created an early exit from the post-season fun for the Yankees. Girardi, on his own, was one game from the World Series a year ago. He might not be the kind of guy who revels in other guys’ failure, but there’s no better time than now to make an exception.