The Yankees waltzed to an easy 7-3 victory in Chicago last night after breaking a 1-1 tie with a four-run sixth inning, but it should have been even easier than it was. With the Yanks up 5-1, Joe Torre replaced starting pitcher Tyler Clippard in the bottom of the sixth despite the fact that the rookie had held the White Sox to just one run over five innings and thrown just 89 pitches.

A quick summary of Clippard’s outing: Stranded two singles in the first. Stranded two walks in the second. One-two-three third inning including strikeouts of Tad Iguchi and Jim Thome. Allowed a run on a pair of singles in the fourth, due in part to the fact that no one covered third base allowing Jermaine Dye to go from first to third on a ground out to short. Gave up a two-out single in the fifth, then pitched around Thome, eventually walking him, before getting the third out.

Why Clippard couldn’t go one more inning with a four run lead is beyond me. Instead, Torre burned through four members of his nine-man bullpen, using Scott Proctor for two innings, and watching Kyle Farnsworth and Brian Bruney cough up runs, the latter forcing Mariano Rivera into action (though the way things have gone this year, getting Mo work at any point is probably a good thing–indeed, Rivera picked up his sixth save by throwing eight of ten pitches for strikes).

This is a small point as it pertains to last night’s game, but is more significant when one considers the larger ramifications, be it the reduced availability of those pitchers for the remainder of the series, or games such as Clippard’s start against the Angels. In that game, Torre removed his rookie starter after four innings and 77 pitches with the Yankees trailing 3-2 only to watch Matt DeSalvo, Luis Vizcaino, and Ron Villone cough up seven runs in the next two innings to put the game out of reach. Torre had a similarly quick hook with Darrell Rasner. After his first start, Rasner didn’t allow more than three runs in any of his other five starts (well, four, we’ll remove his injury-shortened outing against the Mets), yet also never threw more than 81 pitches in any of them. This while the Yankee bullpen was sucking air due to the starters’ inability to go deep into games.

I’d be curious to know if the Yankees had either of these young starters on hard pitch limits, but failing that, Torre’s quick hook with his effective young starters is both troubling and annoying as hell.

Still, good win last night.