I don't understand why Rivera was pulled, he was actually doing pretty decent.
He had thrown too many pitches. Rivera is the closer, which, in the postseason, means he needs to be available to pitch every single day. Two innings is stetching your closer.
Who else did the Yankees have? Joba already went in. If Vizcaino was their next choice well they were screwed anyway.
If the Yankees had scored in one of those innings that Mo pitched, you would be hailing Torre now. As is he prolonged a game for two whole innings. As you said the Yankees have poor relievers, especially lefties, so those two innings would have been much harder to come by without him.Well, if he'd put in Viz after Joba and he'd still given up the go-ahead run (which you can't really assume he would have), then the game would have had the same result without having to use Mo for two innings. I would rather have seen Torre risk it with Viz and gamble that the Yankees could get a run across before the Indians, then he'd have had Mo.
He also could have used (ugh) Farnsworth. Or Ron Villone- oh, wait! Villone was left off the postseason roster for some reason in favor of Jose Veras! Who the fuck knows? It's not like Villone is that great or anything, but he's servicable and Veras fucking blows. Not to mention he was the only halfway reliable lefty in the entire bullpen, and now they don't have a single lefty reliever. That's made even more infuriating since it was Travis Hafner who killed the Yanks last night.
It just seems to me like, once Pettite was pulled, everything went to shit. That's when the Indians started getting more hits, and more RISP and all that good shit. It always seemed like no matter what the Yankees did, the Indians were right there about to win the game.
If the Yankees had scored in one of those innings that Mo pitched, you would be hailing Torre now. As is he prolonged a game for two whole innings. As you said the Yankees have poor relievers, especially lefties, so those two innings would have been much harder to come by without him.
From a pitching perspective, the game had gone almost ideally for the Yankees. If every goes perfectly, it's Pettitte for seven, then Joba for the 8th and Mo for the 9th.
Pettitte being pulled in the 7th was, in my eyes, not the best move, but not a bad one. I think he should have been allowed to pitch to at least one more hitter, but you can hardly question Torre for brining in Joba Chamberlain, who dominated from the moment he was called up this season.
I think they should have let him finish off the 7th tbh. But I'm not managing the Yankees so who am I to say anything.
On a side note, the Cubs suck.