Yankees manager Joe Girardi had pulled all the right strings during his team’s 5-0 start in the postseason, but he’ll be second-guessed about a few moves he made Monday in the Angels’ 5-4 victory in Game 3.

The most perplexing one came in the decisive 11th inning, after Yankees reliever Dave Robertson recorded two quick out. With right-handed-hitting Howie Kendrick coming to the plate, Girardi pulled his right-hander for another, Alfredo Aceves. Seven pitchers later, the game was over.

Aceves gave up a single to Kendrick and an RBI double to Jeff Mathis, a lifetime .200 hitter. Mathis’ blast to deep left-center scored Kendrick with the run that put the Angels back in the ALCS. So, why did Girardi lift Robertson with two outs and nobody on? The manager had been seen consulting a thick binder in the dugout before changing pitchers, and apparently what he found convinced him to make the change.

“We have all the matchups, and all the scouting reports, and we felt that it was a better matchup for us,” Girardi said in a post-game interview.

As for the specific 11th-inning matchups, Kendrick had never faced Aceves and was 1-for-2 against Robertson. Mathis hadn’t faced Robertson and was 1-for-2 against Aceves. Nothing overly significant in those numbers.

According to Tyler Kepner of The New York Times, the decision wasn’t based on numbers, but on the difference in pitches that Robertson and Aceves throw. Kepner noted that Aceves “throws a wider variety of pitches than Robertson, who has only a fastball and a curve.

“Robertson’s fastball has a natural cut to it, but he does not throw a traditional cutter like Aceves, who attacked Kendrick with that pitch. Kendrick took four pitches -- one for a strike -- then lashed a single on the ground up the middle.”

After Kendrick had homered and tripled in earlier at-bats, the Yankees were probably looking for a groundball off a cutter from Aceves. The grounder Aceves induced skipped past him and through the infield, however, setting up Mathis’ game-winning shot to the wall in left-center.

As a former catcher, Girardi may be more likely than other managers to make such a decision based on a pitcher’s arsenal. In fact, the Yankees skipper has been quick to make pitching changes to set up certain matchups throughout the playoffs, but was he guilty of over-managing when he yanked Robertson?

Sometimes you don’t fix what isn’t broken. That’s a pet peeve of this writer, who doesn’t like to see a manager pull a reliever who is cruising along, especially if he’s dominating hitters. Sometimes a lefty-righty matchup doesn’t look like it matters. Sometimes the setup guy is so dominant, it seems unnecessary to change pitchers simply because the ninth inning is the closer’s domain.

Still, managers tend to make the predictable moves, regardless of the success of a pitcher, because they don’t like to be second-guessed. That’s especially true when every game counts in October. In this case, Girardi’s move was a bit unorthodox, outside the box, but it seemed to be a case of over-managing.

That’s not to say Robertson was lights out, but the ease with which he retired both Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales suggested he was just as likely to succeed against the bottom of the Angels lineup as Aceves. Facing Aceves, however, Kendrick and Mathis completed the best postseason performances of their careers.