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Seems like MLB is just full of braindead managers. Girardi got eviscerated after his Game 2 decisions. Farrell is getting hammered for yesterday's. Maddon hasn't exactly been a genius either(see Game 2 pitching decisions).
I heard on the Radio this morning that so far this team has the worst team BA than any team in any series in the history of baseball. Is this true?
They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. Say Dusty left Max in and Schwarber took him deep...people would be crucifying him for not pulling Max out.
Baker knew at that point he was going to take Scherzer out. The only question was whether to bring in Kintzler to face Schwarber, or whether to bring in Solís and force Joe Maddon to pinch-hit with Albert Almora Jr. He went with Solís, deciding the most important thing in that moment was to get Schwarber out of the game.“We thought Max had had enough, especially coming off the injury,” Baker said. “And you know, Schwarber is a dangerous man. I probably couldn’t live with myself if Schwarber had hit one out of the park on you, which he’s dangerous to do that.”Kintzler does have very good numbers vs. lefties, so Baker was asked whether he considered having him face Schwarber. The manager said that wasn’t a consideration.“You know, Kintzler throws that sinker, and Schwarber likes the ball away from him,” Baker said. “I’ve seen him hit that ball in the left field seats many, many times. We thought that was the right decision.”Solís, of course, wound up surrendering the game-tying single to Almora on a 3-2 changeup, then another single to Jason Heyward before giving way to Kintzler, who got Addison Russell to hit into a highly unusual 8-4-3 double play to end that inning.Kintzler remained in the game to start the bottom of the eighth, and he got himself and his team in trouble when he walked Tommy La Stella on five pitches to open that frame. Jon Jay then bunted pinch-runner Leonys Martin to second base, bringing Kris Bryant to the plate.“I was a little out of rhythm when I went back out for the eighth inning,” Kintzler said. “It took a little time to get it going. By that time, I was five, six pitches deep when Bryant got up. Got in a good rhythm right there, but the first hitter ... sometimes when you get back up and go back out, it takes some time to get it going. Just didn’t work out right there. (Avoiding) leadoff walks (are) definitely rule No. 1 for a late-inning reliever.”Kintzler did strike out Bryant, a huge out, but that set up the key showdown with Anthony Rizzo, the other half of the Cubs’ great offensive duo. And so Baker summoned lefty Oliver Pérez to face him with the game on the line. That raised another question: Instead of bringing in Pérez, why not walk Rizzo and bring in Ryan Madson to face Contreras?“Yeah, but you hate to put extra men on base at that point in time in the game,” Baker said. “We decided to pitch to - shoot, I can’t even think - we decided to pitch to him (Rizzo). Like I said, you couldn’t have thrown a ball in there any better than he did. So that was the game.”Indeed, Pérez made a good pitch to Rizzo, jamming him and forcing the slugger to pop up weakly to shallow left-center. Who knew that ball would fall to the ground in between three defenders and prove the difference in the game?There’s so much to debate about all this, so many decisions that were made or could have been made. In the end, perhaps the toughest pill for the Nationals to swallow is this: With their season on the line, they used three relievers (Solís, Kintzler and Pérez). Their two best relievers (Madson and Sean Doolittle) never got into the game.Then again, had their lineup been able to score more than one run, perhaps the decisions would have already been made for Baker and the outcome would have been far different. That’s a wholly different matter to discuss before Game 4.
it was interesting. Bill Belichick wins a lot by knowing the rule book in an out, seems like something the manager should've addressed.
That is so unbelievably sad I mean we have good hitters on this team!! How can they all be failing at the same time????
It was literally the exact scenario that Mike Rizzo had in mind when he went and got Madson, Kintzler, and Doolittle. It could not have been a simpler decision for Dusty.
Dusty rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic:Turner SS, Werth LF, Harper RF, Zimmerman 1B, Murphy 2B, Rendon 3B, Wieters C, Taylor CF, Roark P
Dusty Haters waiting to pounce chew on this this team was devistated by major injuries all year and he played without any sort of bullpen for half a year and he delivered --- anything can happen in a short series just pray your hitters don't get cold and pitchers do their jobs
Dusty explained his decisionhttp://www.masnsports.com/nationals-pastime/2017/10/looking-back-at-the-key-decisions-in-the-seventh-and-eighth.html
Baker knew at that point he was going to take Scherzer out. The only question was whether to bring in Kintzler to face Schwarber, or whether to bring in Solís and force Joe Maddon to pinch-hit with Albert Almora Jr. He went with Solís, deciding the most important thing in that moment was to get Schwarber out of the game.“We thought Max had had enough, especially coming off the injury,” Baker said. “And you know, Schwarber is a dangerous man. I probably couldn’t live with myself if Schwarber had hit one out of the park on you, which he’s dangerous to do that.”
The blame is on Turner and Murphy and everyone else who isn't hitting. And that ball hit by Rizzo should have been caught. But the real downfall here is the offense. The blame is on the guys holding the sticks that couldn't hit the round white thing.
And that should be enough to get him fired. Schwarber has no hits in the series and batted .221 against RHP this year. Almora hit .341 as a pinch hitter and .342 against LHP. Kintzler should have started the inning, and Lind should have pinch hit for Max, but once you've screwed the pooch on both of those decisions you don't triple down on the stupidity.
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/in-defense-of-dusty-baker/
