NEW YORK -- Even in the midst of a River Avenue freezeout, it didn't take long for Joe Girardi to get hot under the collar.

All it took, really, was a misplay by a relief pitcher that the New York Yankees manager must have instinctively known would cost his team the game in the 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros.

And not just any game, but the Yankees' home opener. A game in which their diminished ace, Masahiro Tanaka, held his own against Dallas Keuchel, the Astros' ace and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner. Keuchel had not given up a run against the Yankees for three starts in 2015 -- twice in the regular season and finally and irrevocably, in the play-in, wild-card game.

So when Girardi saw his normally-reliable setup man, Dellin Betances, heave the ball over first baseman Mark Teixeira and allow the go-ahead run to score in the eighth inning, he lost it.

Joe Girardi's protests to umpire Dana DeMuth fell on deaf ears because of Dellin Betance's errant throw. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

He screamed at plate umpire Dana DeMuth. He stalked around a bit. He left the scene of the alleged crime, and then returned for more. He did everything a manager could do to get himself thrown out of a ballgame short of heaving the bases into the stands.

And when he found that all his histrionics had come to naught -- the call was not reversed, the play not reviewable, and the game now probably out of reach -- Girardi signaled that the Yankees would play their 2016 opener under protest.

The protest is likely to go about as far as his tirade did with DeMuth. Under the rulebook, a protest based on a judgment call is summarily denied, and the call made by DeMuth, assisted by first-base umpire Greg Gibson, was clearly a judgment call.

In their judgment, Carlos Correa, whose swinging bunt dribbled up the first-base line and was fielded by Betances, did not impede the pitcher's ability to field the ball or Teixeira's ability to catch it despite running about a foot inside the infield grass.

As Rule 6.01 (a) of the MLB rulebook states: "A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not."

The operative word there is "adjudged," and as DeMuth said "In my judgment he didn't impede or hinder the first baseman from fielding the ball. The pitcher launched it ... the runner does not have to be in a 45-foot baseline. Joe thinks he does."

Somewhat surprisingly, while all of the Yankees who had a clear view of the play appreciated the manager's efforts, none of them rallied too closely to his side of the argument. After all, it is a manager's job to motivate, but players have to make the plays, and the Yankees seemed to realize that this was one play they simply did not make.

"I couldn't see Tex and I think that was the problem," Betances said. "If I had a good angle to throw, I'd have made a good throw."

Said Teixeira: "It's like pass interference. If you throw the ball into the outfield, they're not going to make that call."

"The rule states what it states," catcher Brian McCann said. "I thought he was way in the baseline and there was no angle, but the rule doesn't state that. If he hits him, I guess they can make that call. But it's a tough play."

And Alex Rodriguez sidestepped the issue entirely with this gem: "I've never read a rulebook in my life. I don't know anything about rules."

McCann said DeMuth explained the nuances of the rule to him while the rhubarb was in progress. He said had Betances hit Correa with the throw, he would have been out, but the pitcher's uncatchable throw rendered any argument for an obstruction call a moot point. McCann then passed that along to Girardi.

"That doesn't make any sense to me," Girardi said. "Because now you're asking one of our players to assault theirs. And I'm not going to do that."

The odds are past Yankees managers such as Casey Stengel, Billy Martin and Joe Torre might have taken a different stance, but no matter. Betances took it as a teaching moment, and the lesson he learned was, "Next time that's what I'll do. If that's what's going to have to happen to make them call him out, then that's what I'll have to do."

While it turned out to be a pivotal play in the game, the flap was more red herring that the real cause for a disheartening Opening Day defeat. As Betances pointed out, it is never a good idea to walk the leadoff hitter, as he did with Jose Altuve, because it is very difficult to keep leadoff baserunners from scoring.

And as Teixeira pointed out, it is never a good idea to give a team like the Astros extra outs, especially with Keuchel pitching, as they did in the fourth inning when Altuve's line drive somehow froze Aaron Hicks and sailed over his head for a leadoff double. He wound up scoring Houston's first run of the game after the Yankees had taken a 2-0 lead.

Betances' error, of course, was another extra out, and after he walked Colby Rasmus, Luis Valbuena's two-run single to center provided the final margin of victory.

And the table for all of that was set when Tanaka, who had at least matched Keuchel for five innings, hung a slider to Correa in the sixth for a home run that tied the score and hit the reset button on the game.

"It's frustrating because we had a chance to win the game," Girardi said. "We had a 2-0 lead and we weren't able to build on that. Some of our mistakes led to them scoring some runs."

Those seem to be reason enough for any manager's blood to boil, even on a wintery day at the ballpark.