Much was being made of Lee being over 120 pitches and Wash possibly sending him back out for the 9th. But I wonder, does that really even matter with Lee?

Nolan is celebrated for racking up giant pitch counts without any ill effects, but it’s generally agreed that he was a physical and mechanical freak who could get away with it, while other pitchers cannot.

I wonder if Lee is much closer to being a Nolan Ryan type of pitcher than he is a guy who needs to be carefully watched on his pitch count. Even though he was at 122 after the 8th and that’s a number that, independent of other factors, scares you, he seemed to be just as fresh and deadly in the 8th as he was early on. I’m not so sure that Lee couldn’t throw 120-130 pitches with regularity and not have any ill effects.

I miss The Boss

I was standing next to a longtime Yankees employee as the Rangers finished off Lee’s masterpiece on Monday night, and asked him this question: “What would George have done after a game like this?”

He burst out laughing, because he knew, from first-hand experience, that George Steinbrenner would have gone crazy. “He would have fired some people tonight,” said the employee.

It would not have mattered to The Boss that Lee pitched so well; in fact, his rage would have been fueled by the knowledge that the Yankees had come so close to getting Lee in July and didn’t get that proposed deal across the finish line. Steinbrenner would have demanded a midnight meeting with GM Brian Cashman and his staff and barked about how the Yankees were becoming a national embarrassment (which was always one of his lines). He would have threatened, he would have cajoled.

After the Yankees’ ninth-inning meltdown, he would have second-guessed Joe Girardi for not bringing in Mariano Rivera to pitch the ninth. Steinbrenner would have snapped at Girardi over the phone, over his decision to start Phil Hughes in Game 2, and insisted — one more time — to reassess whether starting A.J. Burnett in Game 4 was a good idea. He would have talked about reassigning hitting coach Kevin Long. He would have put out a statement like this: “Starting Burnett is Joe Girardi’s decision, and he’ll have to live with it.”

He would’ve issued a press release apologizing to the fans for the one-sided loss. He would have offered ticket refunds. He would have questioned the heart of his players. He would have cut an employee dental plan.

A loss like this, to a pitcher he would have coveted, would have gnawed at him.

For the readers: In the comments or mailbag, give us your best example of how Steinbrenner would’ve responded to the Yankees’ Game 3 one-sided loss.