Note: This last Sunday in game two of the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers the Detroit starting pitcher Max Scherzer was pulled by Tiger manager Jim Leyland after pitching seven innings and with a 5-1 lead. To that point he had thrown 108 pitches and had struck out 13 Sox hitters. To say he was dominating Boston would be an understatement. In the eighth an assortment of Tiger relievers succeeded in loading the bases with Sox base runners which brought slugger David Ortiz to the plate. “Big Papi” lined the first pitch he saw over the Fenway Park right field fence and into the Red Sox bullpen. With one swing he had tied the game and Boston went on to win it in the ninth. The next day I got an e-mail from my good friend Stan Gabelein, a long time baseball and Seattle Mariners fan and general sports enthusiast among other things. Leyland’s yanking of Scherzer when he was dominating after seven innings struck a distinct negative chord with Stan and he was not shy in communicating about it, as you will see when you read this first ever guest sports blog published on my “From A Native Son” blog site. And now…here’s Stan!  MA 

Now I want to talk about the baseball game last night. (game 2 of Detroit Tigers vs Boston Red Sox in ALCS)

Detroit BLEW it !!!

Why in hell wouldn’t they let Max Scherzer finish the game or at least pitch 8 innings? When Jim Leyland knows his bullpen sucks, why would he do this? Also, when he DID do it and the bases got loaded, WHY did he even allow his closer to pitch to David Ortiz? Why not walk him, (so the score would be 5-2 at that point) and pitch to the next batter?

I’m not partial to who wins this series but these outpoints are very glaring and it happens a lot with the Mariners too. Felix Hernandez will be humming along with a lead, controlling the game, when he is taken out for no reason except that he has thrown 110 pitches or less. SO WHAT !? He is a horse, he should/could have 15 complete games a year and it wouldn’t hurt him. I don’t understand why a manager would take one of his aces out of a game like that. I know it’s the way things are done today but unless a team has a great bullpen, why do it?

And another thing, since I’m wound up, you know as well as I do that FAR too many bases are given up when a runner is on second and the hitter at the plate gets a base hit.  When an outfielder tries to throw the runner out at the plate instead of throwing to second, what are the chances of getting the runner at home, unless you’re Carlos Beltran [1]of the Cards? The percentages are low no doubt.

Anyway, we can wish that the next manager of the Ms will strongly emphasize fundamentals and be at least a little more creative.

by

Stan Gabelein