Quote:
Originally Posted by phightin
you can't blame charlie for the series.
|
For the series as a whole? Nah. For tonight? Absolutely, and he's botched so many games over the last few years I can't even count. Not to mention that simply screwing this game up beyond belief cost them the entire series. If they win that game, they are tied at 2 with major momentum and a significant pitching advantage in Game 5.
Before we even get into Game 4, he has to be the first manager in the history of baseball that is dumb enough to remove his most successful starting pitcher (statistically speaking) from the rotation for the playoffs.
His first mistake tonight was made before the first pitch was even thrown. After the loss in Game 3, it should have been an absolute no-brainer to start Cliff Lee. Relying on Joe Blanton to match-up with Sabathia was so foolish it's not even funny. Not only that, but starting Lee in Game 4 would have kept him available for a potential Game 7 either in a starting role or out of the bullpen. Now, even if the Phils somehow force a game 7, that option is taken away.
So the Phils overcome this horrible decision and tie the game late and have all the momentum. So in the most important inning of the series he throws a ridiculously shaky and rusty Lidge out there in a non-save situation. Lidge hasn't pitched in like two weeks. He couldn't have brought in Happ or waited to see how things went with Madson for a second inning? Hell even Durbin. All they really had to do was get through the 9th inning without giving up a run and the Yankees looked fully prepared to NOT bring Rivera in (which I think would have been a terrible decision by Girardi but it sure looked like he was going to make it) so you would have had a pinch hitter and the top of the order up, needing to just manufacture one run to take the series by the balls.
Then to compound things, Lidge is CLEARLY in the midst of one of his classic meltdowns. Runners on 1st and 3rd and you know that any run that scores means Rivera in the 9th. Lidge's slider is taken away from him because of the runner on 3rd and Alex Rodfreakingriguez is up. Why on earth would you pitch to him??? Walk his ass and bring in someone else to pitch to Posada. Who the hell cares if a single now scores two runs instead of one, you're facing Rivera in the 9th either way.
Even something as simple as his decision on who to pinch hit in the 9th. Matt Stairs??? Really?? You're down THREE runs, Charlie. One swing of the bat and you're still down two buddy, so let's put someone up at the plate that has a prayer of getting on base. The odds of Stairs doing anything in that at-bat were slim to none. If the game was tied or even a one-run game, I could see it but down three, that was asinine.
He seems like a really nice man and the players clearly like him but his managerial decisions are pathetic, he's a god awful manager, there is no way around it.