Bronx, N.Y., August 28, 2008 — Nobody has to tell a Yankee fan that it has been a bad year in the Bronx, and yet another bad week as well. And if it’s been bad for the team and the fans, it’s been even worse for freshman manager Joe Girardi.

Brought on with a reputation as a fiery manager who would take no guff from players, owners, the press, and the fans, he seemed the perfect antidote to laidback Joe Torre last year. Girardi, one and all were sure, would straighten out his players, his owners, and the umps.

It hasn’t worked out that way. In the wake of a season wrecked largely by injury and dismaying underperformance from projected stars both young and old, players who can’t bunt have bunted, or not, and ownership has blurted out denunciations of the very plan they publicly embraced just a few weeks before. The season continues to head south with a largely veteran lineup displaying shockingly poor at bats with game after game on the line.

Looking at Girardi’s work Thursday afternoon, one could almost hear the primal scream in the background, “Enough!” Joe started pushing buttons when he made out his lineup, he continued with an unlucky first-pitch hit and run with Bobby Abreu at the plate in the third, and he didn’t stop until pinch runner Brett Gardner finally crossed home plate with the game winner three hours and 21 minutes after Mike Mussina’s first-pitch curve for a strike to Jacoby Ellsbury.

Taking another crack at his 17th win, Moose was once again terrific. He allowed just five Boston hits over seven strong innings, struck out six, amd walked just two (David Ortiz twice). Uncharacteristically, Mike hit two batters today, but the fact that one came in the lone inning in which he surrendered two hits put him in a 2-0 hole by the time he threw his 113th and last pitch to close the seventh inning. Moose painted the zone with 23 first-pitch strikes in 29 tries, and his 73/40 strikes/balls ratio rates an easy B-plus. He baffled Boston batters with 31 called strikes and, wasting no effort, used six swings and misses on a day where he set down six swinging (or taking).

Boston lefty John Lester, coming off his worst performance of the year in a loss to Toronto, was superb as well, pounding eight strike outs with no walks to blank the Yanks into the seventh inning. The sad fact, however, is that it’s difficult to judge Lester’s work, coming as it did on the heels of back-to-back games where this Yankee lineup barely reached the bottom of Boston’s rotation for six runs over 18 innings.

But that’s where Girardi took charge, resolving pregame that the status quo just would not do. He sat fifth-place hitter Jason Giambi, moving Xavier Nady up in the lineup, and replaced Giambi at first with the righthanded Cody Ransom. A journeyman, 32-year-old infielder whose pre-2008 experience in the bigs was an extended cup of coffee with St. Louis, Ransom hit two home runs last week in his first two Yankee at bats. Joe flipped a coin and penciled him in, and Cody did not disappoint.

Facing the lefty Lester, Ransom was hit by a pitch in the second, then struck out on three throws in the fifth. But down 0-2 with two outs and nobody on in the seventh, Ransom fouled off two pitches, took two off the plate, then doubled hard into the left field corner. Terry Francona replaced Lester with lefty Hideki Okajima, and Girardi had some scratching their heads when he brought Giambi up to bat in place of catcher Jose Molina. Perhaps a single from switch-hitting Wilson Betemit could halve the Boston lead? But Girardi followed his own muse, and once Giambi fouled off the first pitch, he homered off the facade of the black seats in deepest left center for the 2-2 tie.

But Girardi had just begun. Giambi took over at first, batting ninth, and Pudge Rodriguez came on to catch, hitting eighth. Joe pushed bullpen buttons that had three hurlers throw just six pitches in the top of the eighth: Brian Bruney popped Dustin Pedroia out to center on two pitches to start. Then southpaw Damaso Marte coaxed a hard Ortiz bouncer to the right of second. Robbie Cano, looking more like a nickel back than a second baseman, surrounded the ball in center and made the long accurate peg to first. Mariano Rivera followed by retiring Kevin Youkilis on a fly ball to center.

Okajima and then righty Justin Masterson retired the Yanks in the bottom half, with Ellsbury making a fine play on a Jeter liner to left center leading off. Following three singles, it was a just-failed bid for a four-hit game for the Yankee Captain. But on defense, Derek then had to rush when Bay topped a roller to short to start the ninth. The Yankee shortstop’s throw pulled Giambi off the bag for an error, and Boston had the lead run on. Newly acquired rightfielder Mark Kotsay, following up on a double in his first Boston at bat in the second, made a bid with a long drive to right, but Abreu snagged it a few strides in front of the wall. Bay moved to second as Giambi flagged a Lowrie bouncer to first, with Jason making a strong, accurate, and just-late throw to Jeter after forcing the young Sox third sacker. When Alex Cora bounced to third, it was the Yanks’ turn to come up with a ninth-inning chance to win.

Nady, who has unfortunately joined this team in more ways than one in that he too has been struggling mightily of late, singled to start the frame, and Brett Gardner pinch-ran at first. Girardi surprised the crowd as Cano showed bunt with two struggling hitters to follow. But Robbie took two strikes, then lined hard toward third, with Lowrie spearing the missile targeted for the left field corner. Gardner stole second and Boston opted to walk Matsui. But Masterson followed the intentional free pass with an unintentional one to Pudge, and Giambi strode to the plate with one down and the sacks filled. Jonathan Papelbon came on to a chorus of boos despite the significant number of Red Sox fans in the stands. New York has no love lost for the irascible and talkative Boston closer. Jonathan busted two fastballs inside, and got the call on both. But Giambi lined the third pitch over short. Gardner scrambled to tag just in case, then scored when the ball fell in in front of Ellsbury.

And so a midweek series that held so much hope for the Yanks and their fans has come to a close with so much more bad news than good. Five full games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card race when the series began, the Red Sox leave town with the Yanks six games back now. The Pinstripers suffered embarrassing and listless losses Tuesday and Wednesday, failing to come through with big hits repeatedly, performances emblematic of similar failures all year. But this day, Girardi could take no more. He pushed all the right buttons; he’ll have to do the same the next four-plus weeks.

August 28 has been a happy one in Yankee land, at least as far as birthdays are concerned. Former southpaw Cy Young winner and pitching coach Ron Guidry was born on August 28, 1950, and Mike Mussina came through with a performance this day that would have made him proud. Mike Torrez, who helped pitch the Yanks to a title in 1977, then fell to them pitching for Boston in 1978 while New York grabbed the ring again, was born this day in 1946. And three years earlier, Lou Piniella was born. Certainly, Jason Giambi’s two at bats Thursday clearly evoked the kind of at bats the clutch-hitting Sweet Lou famously brought to the big ballpark in the South Bronx every day.

And while we’re listing birthdays, there’s one more. Sociologist C. Wright Mills was born on August 28, 1916. Mr. Mills wrote a book the title of which could easily refer to Giambi’s heroics this day. When he is not playing well, Jason can be bad. But today, he was,

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