FanHouse MlbPlayoffGoat

MLB Playoff Goat will point out the most dubious factor that resulted in a postseason loss on a daily basis.

In a game where C.C. Sabathia threw 114 pitches and was squeezed all night by Bruce Froemming, a halfway decent start by the Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang would have gone a long way towards taking a 1-0 lead in their best of five.

Instead, Wang laid an egg and the Yanks never had a chance.

Wang has never been a great pitcher in the first inning ... he has a .272 batting average against in the first inning this season, while giving up 17 runs. The conventional wisdom has always been that it's best to get to Wang early. But with a 1-0 lead after Johnny Damon's home run, the Yankees could have really used a good first inning by Wang. And after giving up three in that frame, he gave up another in the third and four more in the fifth. His line: nine hits, four walks, and eight runs in four and two thirds. Not a line befitting a game one starter.

MLB Playoff Goat will point out the most dubious factor that resulted in a postseason loss on a daily basis.

My partner in crime, Pat "Shades" Lackey, already lambasted Cubs manager Lou Piniella for his horrendous logic in pulling Carlos Zambrano out of a 1-1 game prior to the 7th inning. Rather than flog the soon-to-be deceased equine, I will concentrate on the man whose error on the playing field magnified the awful judgment call by Piniella.

Pitching in his first playoff game ever, 24-year-old Carlos Marmol, who was downright dirty in the regular season, grooved a fastball down the pipe to Mark Reynolds, a 24-year-old who never played a game in Triple-A, and up until Wednesday night, was most notorious for tying the record by a non-pitcher for most consecutive strikeouts. The sad thing for Marmol is that he could ultimately be the reason the Cubs get eliminated early in the postseason once again, leaving masses of fans longing for a World Series title. The bright side -- if there is one -- is that Marmol learned you can't lose focus on any pitch in the playoffs. Now he knows it takes just one poorly spotted fastball for an entire game, or worse yet, season, to be lost. And for that, hopefully Marmol will be better off in the long run.

Oh yeah, and as for you Piniella, that's a move worth being fired over.