Joe going clueless again?

The Monk is disgusted. Yes, it's temporary, but it will linger and watch for more on this theme in the future.

Tonight, the Yanks had an 8-1 lead in Texas heading into the bottom of the 8th with Mooooooooose on the mound and only 85 pitches on his arm. His 86th pitch turned into a leadoff single in the bottom of eighth. Torre pulled him, inserted Aaron Small, who is still on a spring training level of progress back from injury, and watched the following: Small imploded; Farnsworth wandered in and out of more trouble, then Torrre had to use Mo for a four-out save starting with the bases loaded -- and Mo allowed ALL THREE inherited runners to score. Then Mo stuttered around the 9th before closing out an 8-7 win.

This is Torre at his worst: overprotecting the starters and exposing Rivera. After last year's ALCS, when the White Sawx used all of five pitchers and racked up four complete games, the trend of using starters who are not used up (only 86 pitches for a vet like Mooooooooooose!) should be on the upswing. Not in NYC, where Torre again hooks a starter too early and instead exposes Rivera. Yes, The Monk is still haunted by game 5 of the '04 ALCS (see here for more); nonetheless, Moooooooose had owned the Rangers all night and Rivera had to toss more than 20 pitches to get the Rangers out. And another thing: when Mo comes in to face a lefty, everyone knows he's throwing inside cutter first; when he's facing a lefty who hits him well like Hank Blalock, Posada should call SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR ONCE. Tonight -- first pitch to Blalock with bases loaded = banged through the right side for a two-run single.

Bad move all around.