You think it was frustrating to watch the Yankees overmanage, micromanage, mismanage their pitchers in Tuesday’s Game 2 of the American League Division Series, which they lost 7–5 to the Rays? Try being one of those pitchers.
Here was the brilliant plan concocted by a franchise that, absent a pandemic, would have spent more than $99 million on its rotation this year: New York started righthander Deivi García, watched as Tampa Bay wrote five left-handed hitters into its lineup, then pulled him after an inning and replaced him with the left-handed J.A. Happ. The move put Happ in a position to succeed.