The New York Yankees made a surprising decision prior to Game 2 of their American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Manager Aaron Boone elected to start rookie pitcher Deivi Garcia in Game 2, but ended up taking Garcia out after just one inning of work in the 7-5 loss to the Rays.
During Wednesday's installment of "Nothing Personal with David Samson," David Samson was critical of Boone's decision to start Garcia and take him out so quickly.
"They started the game with (Deivi) Garcia, so the Rays made their lineup as though Garcia was going to pitch. Then they pulled Garcia after an inning, brought in J.A. Happ, and the Rays made one or two adjustments, but won the game anyway," Samson said. "Boone was trying to be clever. Instead of letting his offense complement his mediocre starting pitching, his average to above-average bullpenn, and hope that the team never gets exposed by another team's starting pitching. That hope has come to fruition because the offense has been unstoppable since the playoffs started. But it wasn't good enough. They had to act as though they're playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers and it cost them."
Samson said that he would've started Masahiro Tanaka and even would've let Garcia go through the lineup once before pulling him from the game. In addition, Samson wouldn't have brought in Happ following Garcia being taken out.
It certainly was a questionable decision to take Garcia out considering he only surrendered a solo home run in the first inning.
