New York Baseball

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Yankees Stumble Against the Pirates in an Unfriendly Setting
By BILLY WITZAPRIL 22, 2017

PITTSBURGH — Perhaps there was a time when Joe Girardi embraced his inner rebel, when he took a joy ride just so he could feel the wind in his hair. But when he puts on his uniform and manages the Yankees, there is no such frivolity.

It is as if he is parenting 25 teenagers. He frets. He worries. He searches out risks that an actuary would laugh off and wants to cover them in bubble wrap.

So when news arrived on Friday that the San Francisco Giants’ star pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, had sprained his throwing shoulder riding a dirt bike in Colorado on Thursday and could be out for two months, it was as if Girardi had lost one of his own.

He winced. He shook his head.

“I’m scared to death of motorcycles,” Girardi said. “I’m scared of heights. I think golfing is a risk.”

Another danger for pitchers, in Girardi’s eyes, arises at National League ballparks like PNC Park here: hitting.

Unlike Bumgarner — who homered twice on opening day — or a number of other pitchers in the National League with competent swings, Yankees pitchers rarely accomplish much with a bat.

Since they hit just sporadically, the Yankees’ philosophy with pitchers at the plate is simple.

“Don’t get hurt,” the assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/sports/baseball/new-york-yankees-pittsburgh-pirates.html?