Thomson disappointed in his decision to send Kearns
New York Yankees' Austin Kearns (26) collects his thoughts after being tagged out while trying to score in the sixth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Red Sox won 7-3. (Photo by John Dunn) Credit: Photo by John Dunn
Rob Thomson would have taken a do-over. "In hindsight, you say it was an error in judgment," the Yankees' typically aggressive third-base coach said after yesterday's 7-3 loss. "If I had to take it back, I would."
With the Yankees trailing 4-0 in the sixth, they had their only scoring chance against Jon Lester. With men on first and second and one out, Derek Jeter grounded a single to left. They could have settled for loading the bases and bringing the tying run to the plate in Nick Swisher, with Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez to follow, but Thomson never hesitated in sending Austin Kearns home. Daniel Nava's throw was just in time to retire Kearns for the second out, and Swisher flied out.
"If I think a guy's going to score, I'm going to send him, I don't care who's coming," Thomson said of the fact that the heart of the order was due up. "I thought he was going to score, so I sent him. It was a mistake."
Thomson said he doesn't always second-guess himself when a runner gets thrown out, but he did this time. And will continue to. "That one will stick with me for a while because of the situation," he said. "But it happens sometimes."
Hughes' final limitation
Phil Hughes prefers to look at the latest move to manage his innings - and the last one of the regular season - as not being skipped.
"It's only three days, so I just look at it as being pushed back," said Hughes, originally scheduled to pitch Sunday night before being pushed to Wednesday in Toronto.
Had he not been pushed back, Hughes would have been in line to make two more starts. "I wasn't really shocked because if I put together a couple of good starts [that would] be 14, 15 innings or more," he said. "So it will be just one more and we'll go from there."
Extra bases
David Robertson (back), who hadn't pitched since Monday, warmed up when Ivan Nova struggled in the third . . . Joba Chamberlain allowed a run on back-to-back doubles in the ninth and has allowed two runs and four hits in his last two appearances . . . J.D. Drew and Victor Martinez hit back-to-back homers off Chad Gaudin in the seventh.
