In eight years with the Yankees, Joe Girardi never has allowed outside opinions to shape his belief in what type of manager he is, and that hasn’t changed after the Yankees failed to play a postseason series for the third straight year.
“I did the best I could is the bottom line,’’ Girardi said Friday morning at a Yankee Stadium press conference while the postseason roared onward without the Yankees, who were humiliated by Dallas Keuchel and the Astros, 3-0, in the AL wild-card game Tuesday.
“If people thought I could have done better, I understand that. So you live with it.’’
Ending the regular season with six losses in seven games and then getting blanked in the wild-card contest left Girardi open for criticism on several fronts.
Not starting Jacoby Ellsbury against the Astros caused an uproar in some circles because of Ellsbury being in the second leg of a seven-year, $153 million contract and being a .301 (40-for-133) hitter with a .361 on-base percentage in his postseason career. But Ellsbury also was hitting .202 (23-for-114) from Sept. 1 to the end of the regular season.
Earlier this week, GM Brian Cashman said Girardi managed the Yankees into the postseason and it
“wasn’t his fault we didn’t hit.’’
Brett Gardner
Photo: UPI
Girardi pointed that out Friday.
“When I look at our club down the stretch we struggled more offensively than anything we did,’’ Girardi said of a lineup that didn’t match their first-half success in the second half.
“We have a lot of players considered in their prime age.’’
That list consists of Brian McCann (31), Brett Gardner (32) and Ellsbury (32). All tailed off during the second half, which put added responsibility on the other hitters. That increased when Mark Teixeira appeared in just two games after Aug. 18 due to a fractured right leg.
“With the information in front of me, being prepared and the discussions I had with my coaches, I did what I felt was right every day,’’ Girardi said. “The bottom line is that we didn’t win, so that will be questioned. I understand that. Hindsight can be 20/20, and could you have done something different? In saying that, we aren’t sure that would have worked any better.’’
Dellin Betances
Photo: Paul J. Bereswill
Benching Ellsbury so the right-handed-hitting Chris Young could face Keuchel was the final can of gas on the fire for the “Joe Must Go’’ choir that been singing often across the final month.
As Dellin Betances scuffled through a September that wasn’t in line with four of the first five months — when he was the best reliever in baseball and an All-Star for the second straight season — Girardi was criticized for using the right-hander too much. And all those voices weren’t dialing in from outside the organization.
After defending the overall job he did, Girardi went on the offensive to debunk the theory Betances was overworked in September, when he gave up 11 hits and 11 walks in 14 2/3 innings and posted a 1.84 ERA (his second-worst month after a 4.09 mark in June).
“There were a lot of question marks on me on how much I used Dellin during the course of the season and I was using him more. Does anyone know how many pitches he threw this year compared to last year?’’ a defensive Girardi said. “I would bet not. Does anyone know that he was shut down the last 10 days of September last year? He threw five more pitches in the regular season this year than last year. I was cognizant of his work load. When I look at what happened to Dellin, he had a human month.’’
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