TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Slopsville USA!

No Laugher, But Lots of Yucks at Fenway

The Gaffe-Aws Continue into the Night

Here's a quick inventory from my scorecard of Game 1:

• 12 walks
  
• 2 hit batsmen
  
• 5 errors
  
• 3 bad defensive missplays that cost bases not counted as errors
  
• 3 bad-hop hits
  
• 1 passed ball
  
• three base-running gaffes
  
• 22 questionable managerial decisions
  
• 1 blown save
  
• 2 blown leads
  
• 5 of 12 inherited runners scored
  
• 9 relief runs given up by 5 different pitchers
  
• 3 1-2-3 innings
  
• 4 at-bats for Johnny Damon in the first four innings
  
• 1 umpire smacked by a ball in play - the left field umpire!
  
• 4 of 4 catchers used
  
• 0 hits by Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen, combined
  
• 5 times on base by Larry Walker without facing a single lefty pitcher
  
• 12 lunging swings by Kevin Millar trying to be a hero
  
• 1 too many pitch in the strike zone by Julian Tavarez to Mark Bellhorn after he'd already turned on a pitch and barely hit it foul
  
• 100,000,000 dangerously-high blood pressure readings
  

After this kind of barrage, one has to ask...where was the balk? I swear I saw at least two, but neither were called.

In my series preview, I noted as one of the keys to the series "overmanagement" and both Francona and La Russa were vying to see who could out-do the other in this category. As ever, La Russa came out well ahead. Francona got things going by trying to prove he could manage an "NL" game on a night he was starting a knuckleballer who throws a shut out once every ten blue moons (gaffe - Francona - 1 - asking Cabrera to bunt in the first just ahead of Ramirez and Ortiz.) That one didn't end up hurting, since after failing to get the bunt down Cabrera got hit by a pitch. La Russa countered with identical strategy in the second. It's one thing to let Jimmy Edmonds take a bunt hit the Red Sox defense (gaffe: Francona - 2 - infield positioning), quite another to then use a sacrifice bunt down 4-0 in the second when your starter is redefining ugly and you're facing a knuckleball pitcher, not a 95-MPH fastballer (gaffe: La Russa - 1 - use of sacrifice with two runners on and nobody out down 4-0). Then we have So Toguchi striking out with two on and one out after a sacrifice fly in the second (gaffe - La Russa - 2 - putting a guy who just can't hit in the starting lineup for defense by way of taking advantage of the DH.)

I'm not sure what La Russa was thinking watching Williams pitch from the dugout, but he clearly left him out at least two batters too long (gaffe: LaRussa - 3 - leaving your veteran pitcher in to get out of a jam after he's struggled through two). Then there was Francona, who had a quick enough hook on Wakefield after he struggled (predictably, after sitting for 25 inutes during the Red Sox half of the inning -- even knucklers lose their grips), but didn't use one of his two lefties to face Walker in the fourth, instead bringing in Arroyo (gaffe - Francona - 3 - believing lefty specialists should be saved for later in the game instead of being brought in to two-out bases-loaded situations).

With Wakefield out of the game, Francona was free to pinch-hit for Doug Mirabelli with Jason Varitek in the sixth (gaffe - Francona - 4 - pinch hitting with your last catcher with two out and nobody on even though Mirabelli had a hit in the game and Varitek, as switch-hitting power off the bench, could've been used later). Pinch-hitting overmanagement continued, as La Russa did what he does best -- take his best pitchers out of the game needlessly -- in the bottom of the seventh. Francona pinch-hit Gabe Kapler to chase out lefty Ray King (gaffe - Francona - 5 - taking out a lefty who can handle lefty specialists for a weaker hitter who was going to come in later for defense anyway), but La Russa responded by taking out the lefty, King, who can handle righties (gaffe - La Russa - 4 - using up a pitcher needlessly) and putting in Cal Eldred, who made everybody look like a genius by striking out Kapler (gaffe - Francona - 6 - failure to complete the minuet and have a lefty on the bench to face Eldred, who is not effective on tough lefties, because he didn't want to lose Kapler's defense) , who watched three quite hittable pitches sail by him and left runners on first and second.

LaRussa, however, was not to be outdone. He pinch-ran for slow-footed Mike Matheny in the eighth (gaffe - using up second catcher in a tie game with no emergency catcher available - La Russa -5; gaffe - La Russa - 6 ending up having to have Molina hit for himself with a runner on base on the ninth and one out because he had no catcher left; gaffe - La Russa - 7 - sending in his best starting pitcher, Jason Marquis, who stumbled around the bases and nearly took himself out of the series by breaking his ankle) after he reached base on a Manny Ramirez error (gaffe - Francona - 7 - failure to replace Manny Ramirez defensively while ahead late when his spot was six away in the order and wouldn't've come up until the ninth). With one out and the runner on in the eighth, Francona decided to bring in one of his specialist lefties to face switch-hitting Roger Cedeno (gaffe - Francona - 8 - suboptimal use of situational lefty), and Cedeno promptply singled. Francona then brough in closer Keith Foulke in the eighth (gaffe - Francona - 9 - bringing in ace closer early after he'd thrown 100 pitches in three consecutive games in the LCS when he had a short righty in the pen still). He then, of course, did not want to pull Foulke even after he'd given up a hit to bring the score to 9-8, so again there was no lefty specialist to face Larry Walker (gaffe - Francona - 10 - failure to plot out optimal match-ups close and late). Walker didn't exactly rip the ball, but he did send it towards Manny Ramirez, who kicked up a divot that could've been mistaken for the start of the Big Dig II, and the game was tied.

True to form, La Russa made a late-inning comeback in the bottom of the eigth. He brought in Julian Tavarez to face switch-hitters Bill Mueller and Jason Varitek (now catching and in the eight hole), even though he had his closer, Jason Isringhausen, available in a close game late (gaffe - La Russa - 8 - conventionally keeping closer for when his team is ahead on the road). Renteria coughed up a grounder to his right to let Varitek on with one out, and Tavarez made a poor choice to Mark Bellhorn, who hit the ball around Pesky's Pole (gaffe - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver - 312th of the night -- it's Pesky's Pole, not "the pesky pole".) In the ninth, he was left with Reggie Sanders, who was hopelessly mismatched against Foulke. Marlon Anderson playing for the injured Tony Womack, doubled (gaffe - La Russa - 9 - failure to start Anderson in the first place when Womack, who was 0-2 with a walk and a sacrifice, had a bad back, and when Anderson was as good a defender and had more speed than Renteria) (gaffe - La Russa - 10 - failure to use the steal against Wakefield, the knuckler, instead of the sacrifice, and continuing to fail to use the decided St. Louis weapon in this arena until it was too late). Then of course Molina came up and La Russa left him in there because he had to (gaffe - La Russa - 11 - failure to pinch-hit for his weakest hitter just to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to use an emergency catcher in case they tied the game), and Molina popped out on an 0-2 count. Finally La Russa was left with Roger Cedeno (gaffe - La Russa - 12 - failure to use a guy with power off the bench as your potential tying run, in John Mabry, when he had a weak-hitting speedster up with two out and one on).

Oh yes, just another litany of second-guessing from an armchair manager. I stick by my basic point: managers are way too eager in the post-season to insert themselves into the play, and they either get off their games or they stick to decisions they made in advance even though the game situation doesn't warrant it.

Correction

In my World Series preview, I neglected to mention that Jim Edmonds had lots of experience facing Wakefield, and was hitting over .300 against him career. Edmonds got a bunt hit and a walk in two appearances against Wake.

posted by The Crank 9:31 AM