Uh? Are you referring to the 7th inning? If so you are wrong, he used Schilling in the top of the 8th. Schilling didn't get pulled until after second Yankee run.
What game were you watching? Schilling led off the bottom of the seventh and struck out. Soriano was the first batter he faced in the eighth when he homered. And for the record, Schilling was still being clocked at 95 mph at the time.
One of the Fox guys in the booth said that it was a surprise to see Schilling at bat to lead off the inning with his pitch count so high. The question was, whom would Brenly rather have out there -- Schilling, tough as nails and maybe tiring, or fresh guys who might not get the job done (such as Albee Lopez)? He decided on Schilling, and while he paid for that decision, it was not a fatal blow, as we now know.
I can remember a similar situation back in 1985, when the Royals were in the Series against the Cards. The Cards led the Series 3-2, and Charlie Leibrandt, whose post-season pitching stats are under "snakebit" in the dictionary, was on the mound for KC.
Leibrandt and St. Louis starter Danny Cox were in a goose egg duel; Cox danced out of jams by inducing double plays, and Leibrandt allowed just two singles through seven. In the bottom of the seventh, the Royals put runners on first and second with less than two out, but the Cards got the crucial second out, and the pitchers' slot was up. Leibrandt, a soft-tossing speed-changer who had the Royals lowest ERA that season (the same season the Royals' Bret Saberhagen won the Cy Young award), was pitching a masterpiece. But surely Royals manager Dick Howser wouldn't have Leibrandt, an American League pitcher for most of his career, hit for himself in this situation, right?
Wrong.
To the shock of everyone, Leibrandt, who looked feeble at the plate even for an AL hurler, was sent to swing and hope something would happen. Something did happen. He was struck out by Cox. Opportunity lost.
The Cards broke through against Leibrandt with a single run in the top of the eighth. Finally, Howser turned to their submarine slinging closer, Dan Quisenberry, who got the Royals out of the inning without further damage. But KC didn't score in the bottom of the eighth, and after Quiz held the line in the top of the ninth, the Royals, down 1-0, had to beat Cards' flamethrowing closer Todd Worrell to tie or win or else the Series would be over.
What happened in the bottom of the ninth is part of World Series lore. Jorge Orta was sent by Howser to pinch hit, and he banged a bouncer off the Royals Stadium turf up the first base line. Worrell ran to cover first as St. Louis first baseman Jack Clark grabbed the ball behind the bag, and tossed it the pitcher. Worrell grabbed the ball and stepped on first. Orta stepped on Worrell's heel from behind and tumbled past the bag.
1B umpire Don Denkinger said "Safe."
"Tie goes to the runner" is the rule, but it isn't a tie when the runner steps on the defensive player's foot -- we know who hit the bag first in that situation! Denkinger blew the call big time, as Dick Cheney might have said. Worrell, Clark, 2B Tom Herr, and St. L. skipper Whitey Herzog went ballistic, to no avail.
The short version is that Denkinger's evident error cost the Cards the sixth game, but that obscures the details. Three outs from the World Championship, the Cards came unglued, collapsing in a manner that the Red Sox would match in the sixth game of the next Series (1986, Bill Buckner, Bob Stanley, Calvin Schiraldi). Here's the reeeest of the story.
With Orta unjustly on first and no one out, Clark misplayed a Steve Balboni foul pop-up, and Balboni later lined a single to send Orta to second. Jim Sundberg laid down a sac bunt too hard, and Worrell nailed Orta at third. But then Cards' catcher Darrell Porter let a Worrell pitch get away, and Onix Concepcion (running for the lumbering Balboni) went to third. With first base open, pinch hitter Hal McRae was walked, and up came pinch hitter Dane Iorg with the bases loaded. Iorg hit a broken-bat looper into right, and Concepcion and Sundberg scored, and the Royals won Game 6 by a score of 2-1.
It all worked out for Howser, thanks both to Denkinger's lying eyes and the Cards' loss of composure, which carried into Game 7. The Royals pounded the Cards early and St. Louis never scored. Eventually both Herzog and pitcher Joaquin Andujar were tossed for continuing to bark at Denkinger, who took his turn behind the plate that night.
Here's the big diff between Brenly and Howser's dilemmas: Howser's decision all but eliminated the possibility of cashing in on a runner in scoring position, effectively ending the Royals' inning after the second out; Brenly's decision made it likely that the D-backs would have only two outs in which to attempt breaking the tie, but there was no way to know how many could be scored with one down (witness the third inning of Game 6).
Tough decisions must be made by coaches and managers in the post-season. Some are right, some are wrong. Some are the result of bad calls, some the result of key injury. The variables are endless, and the best team doesn't always win.
To too darn many fans, if your pitcher can keep the other guys at bay after not pinch-hitting for him, the manager's a "genius"; if not, he's an "idiot." It's not that simple. IMHO, Regardless of the talent of the players, managers who are really idiots never get to the World Series.