Apr 20, 2007

Bullpen blows it

What is with Mo? Another terrible outing. The at-bat against Varitek was the killer. I thought Mo was working on the changeup for exactly that kind of at-bat. He fouled off three pitches before lining a single - he obviously had the timing of the cutter down. That's when to throw the change!

Anyway, you can also place some blame on Melky for not getting a sac fly with a runner on 3rd and 1 out in the 8th inning.

Myers should also take some blame - he's only on the team to get out lefties, and he gave up a double to Ortiz. At that point, you might as well leave him in to pitch Ramirez carefully, and then face the lefty Drew.

I did have a problem bringing Mo in so early. He's just not a five out guy anymore. Why not leave Vizcaino in or call for Bruney?

However, I don't have a big problem letting Thompson hit in the 9th. The hitting combo of Thompson and Phelps is far better than Phelps and Nieves - plus Phelps would slide into the catching spot. The problem was taking Giambi out in the first place. Torre's been constantly doing that, and it's come back to hurt them almost every time.

But as my father-in-law says, 'If divisions were won in May, the Red Sox would be the Yankees.'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The bullpen blew it, but they had alot of help from Clueless Joe Torre. Fire this clown now!!!

Travis G. said...

Joe made some tough decisions last night, and unfortunately, pretty much all of them hurt the team. it's somewhat a case of Monday Morning QB - i support bringing in your best reliever when the situation calls for it, but Mo sucked again.

but i find it hard not to blame him for pinch-running for Giambi, and not having DMint guard the foul line.