Posted on 10/08/2013 10:04:36 AM PDT by campaignPete R-CT
Craig Kimbrel is supposedly the heir to Mariano Rivera. In his postseason career as closer, Rivera recorded 27 appearances of 2+ innings.
Uribe bunted two balls foul, ... and then tomahawked a high fastball from David Carpenter into left-field stands for a shocking two-run homer ....
Note that I wrote "David Carpenter" and not "Craig Kimbrel."
The Braves had to win this game. Lose, and they go home. Somehow they lost -- in the late innings, no less -- without using the most dominant relief pitcher in the game.
The sad thing is, Gonzalez apparently didn't even think of using Kimbrel for two innings. "I think six outs isn't something we were even talking about in the dugout," he said after the game.
But what’s the difference between four outs and six outs? Six pitches? Ten pitches? And that doesn’t even factor in that the Dodgers had the 5-6-7 hitters due up in the eighth and the 8-9-1 hitters up in the ninth.
So instead you lost a game with a guy who had a 6.07 ERA last year for the Houston Astros.
... ".. I want the ball." We'll see if Kimbrel confirms that, but even if he didn't say that, his look of disgust, standing there with his hands on his hips, will haunt Braves fans all winter.
This should be covered in Managing 101. ... Who cares if it's the seventh inning or the eighth inning or the ninth. I'd rather lose with Carpenter in the ninth inning or the 10th inning or whenever ...
Look, managing your bullpen in a structured manner in the regular season is one thing.
October is not the regular season.
Fredi Gonzalez didn't think the best reliever in the game can get six outs.
He ended up getting none.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
Detroit p’d this one away.
Yup, their bullpen got into trouble.
Winning run is 90 feet away and no outs....
Game.
Well, that sucked.
Yep, as soon as Big Papi tied it, there was that feeling of inevitability.
Pretty eventful day for Boston sports fans, I must say.
Bases loaded with him coming up...there was one thing he had in mind, and he did it.
Don’t pitch to Ortiz, and don’t give Brady a second chance, ‘cause you’ll regret it, every time.
is the SoxsterinMA asleep ? ....
Big Papi!! Dude is as clutch as they come...
“is the SoxsterinMA asleep ? ....”
No. I was finishing watching walking Dead and my nephew texted me to watch the game. WOW!!!
This will either crush DET or BOS blew their wad on this game and will lose. I still think DET will win the series.
WOW!!!
When in doubt, leave it up to the Italian.
Would you pitched around him and risked a walk?
I’m not a fan of walking in a run but it might have been a smart play. Once Barry Bonds was INTENTIONALLY walked with he bases loaded in the 9th and it worked.
In fact it’s been done 6 times and it’s payed off every time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_base_on_balls#Intentional_walks_with_the_bases_loaded
I think I would have walked in a run rather than risk a grand slam. I know that we’ve seen that exact scenario with Cabrera a couple of times.
I’m not a fan of the intentional walk but it is an option.
I’m reading the Tiggggger fans on another site are blaming Leyland for everything that went wrong. He should have left Scherzer in the game instead of going to the pen.
Well, on flip side, we could “whine” to them and say Farrell left in Buchholz too long. It was starting to be obvious Bucholz lost his stuff in the 6th who should have been taken out. Fox announcer’s McCarver and Buck even noticed it as well who wondered and spoke to the audience why Farrell didn’t yank him for a reliever. The tardy Farrell didn’t even have a reliever warming up until the damage was done. It could have saved the Sox 3 to 4 runs if Farrell timely pulled Buchholz.
Here is tried and proven strategy to use against the Tigger outstanding starting pitching.
The Red Sox run up the pitch count. The batters look for a specific pitch in a specific area, and who don’t swing until they get 2 strikes where they have to expand the strike zone. When Red Sox batters have two strikes, they spoil off the pitcher pitches with as many foul balls as the batters can manage. The whole idea is make the Tigers go earlier to their more vulnerable Tiger bullpen. The Yankees were very good at implementing this strategy as well as past Red Sox teams.
“Would you pitched around him and risked a walk?”
The way DET was K-ing BOS, no way. Out of the 18 innings played so far, DET has outplayed BOS for 16 of them. Also, I believe 30 out of the first 48 out by BOS were via strikeouts.
So, no. There was no offensive threat up to that point.
Both Leyland and Farrell haven’t been perfect this series: Buchholtz should have been pulled earlier; Scherzer later.
Leyland unleashed his inner Maddon with the parade of relievers...WTH? And, yes, Farrell should have had someone warming up much sooner than he did, because that would have saved runs, like you stated.
Great point about wearing down the DET starters to get to their bullpen, which is one area where BOS has a significant advantage over DET. The NYY perfected that strategy (high pitch counts) and BOS did use it effectively when they’ve won.
p.s. BUF signs Matt Flynn.
Two LA doubles and a triple off of Wainright in the 4th. Dodgers up 2 - 0 over then Cards.
I saw that; flipping between the game and “Who Killed Stalin?” on the Military Channel.
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