Yeah, this is my question. It's just as easy to interpret Leyland's actions as trying to eke out a tight game against a good opponent by matching pitchers with hitters. Down by one with the chance of having the fat part of your order get up two or maybe three more times, I think I'd be playing for the win, too.
But my position is that no manager, at least no good manager (if you maintain that Leyland is a good manager) would do this in this situation. Again, it's all situational for me.
Putkonen came in in 6th and pitched to two batters, Ramos and Lombardozzi. Drew Smyly, the 6th starter or long man lefty out of the bullpen came in when Span and Bernadina were due up. Smyly then pitched for 1.2 innings. Clearly Smyly was capable of starting the 6th and pitching the full 2 innings and that's what made this such an odd use of his bullpen. Again, this is a May interleague game the Nationals and Tigers played yesterday. Playing what appears to be matchups is anomalous in this situation, would you not agree?
It has long been a point of contention in this forum about Nationals managers "managing for a 162-game season not for an individual game". I'm usually on the side of the doing what it takes to win the game in front of you however I understand that good managers don't think that way. They husband their resources for the long season. If that's the case, and we all maintain that Leyland is a good manager, this was a particularly curious use of his resources that I'm sure he's unlikely to repeat often during the season. He'd burn out his bullpen if he did and there are obviously more important games on the Tigers' schedule, like games within their division (they start a series with Indians who are just a game behind them tonight) and games with the American League. Winning those games are far more important for the Tigers.
Now, we can interpret Leyland's actions as you laid them out but we're fans not managers. Leyland knows what teams stand in his way of getting to the World Series and the Nationals aren't one of those teams. He knows it's a 162-game season that he's managing for and the vast majority of those games are a lot more important than the one his team played yesterday.
