....and the guy least likely to run through a wall played the most
I despise the Cardinals....but they play it all out way more than the Reds....as do the hated Yankees full of completely proven guys that don't typically do that.
Dusty didn't have any single player play hard that wouldn't play hard for anyone.
Dusty's postseason blues are tough to match. Managed 19 seasons....zero championships but 3 monumental collapses, with this one maybe being the worst of them all.
Someone posted somewhere else yesterday that Dusty is great for the marathon of the regular season and terrible with the sprint of the postseason. I am to lazy to look for who said it but I think they were spot on. Game 4 felt like Dusty was running out the "b" lineup. I was at the game on Wednesday and told the friend I went with before they started that we would lose the next two games. You just can't punt away a game in the postseason and get away with it.
That being said I don't know how I feel about Dusty returning. I guess I could go either way. He does some things that make me curse, but he also gets more out of some guys than I think he should, and there is something to be said for that
anytime you put arrendondo in a 2 run game tells me you're giving up the game and saving for game 5...this is something you do in July...why not have Arroyo warming, or Bailey? Giants were throwing the book, doing everything
My biggest problem with Dusty in this series is that he was managing like it was July or August instead of October.
The b-team lineup in Game 4? Sure, I understand that's what he's done all season in day games following night games. But it's not July or August.
No quick hook for Latos yesterday? No Arroyo or Homer in relief? They had to win; you can't worry about the next series or the next game in that situation.
Ultimately, though, they lost because they left their bats in San Francisco. 39 runners left on base in 5 games ain't gonna get it done.
In hindsight, Game 3 killed them. 9 innings of 1 run, 1 hit pitching? You really, REALLY should win that game. But they couldn't muster a second run. All downhill from there.
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