What the heck was Joe Girardi thinking?

For the most part, I have been very pleased with Joe Girardi’s management so far. However, like many other Yankee fans, I was not so pleased over the way he handled yesterday’s game - specifically, with him allowing Mike Mussina to pitch to Manny Ramirez instead of walking him with first base open. Forget about Mussina having struck out David Ortiz just before Manny. Forget about Mussina only having thrown 70 pitches. It looked like Mussina was laboring. Besides, Ramirez had hit a monster shot off him earlier in the game. It seemed like a no-brainer to walk him. But when Joe came out to talk to Mike, here’s what happened, according to today’s Bill Madden column: “He asked me what I wanted to do,” Mussina said, “and I said I don’t feel any different about (on-deck hitter Kevin) Youkilis than I do about Manny. If I said, ‘Let’s walk him,’ that puts me in a bad situation. I was trying go down and away and the ball tailed back ... [link]