This is St. Louis.
We take a bunch of crap for calling ourselves the best fans in baseball but it’s all in good fun. Through all the ribbing from places like Deadspin for #BFIBing, one thing doesn’t ever come up – the question of do Cardinals fans actually KNOW baseball.
We do.
It’s not fair to say that Mike Matheny cost the Cardinals a win last night in Pittsburgh. Even if Seth Maness got out of the 8th inning, the Cardinals could have lost that game a thousand other ways. But when Matheny left Maness in to face Ike Davis instead of bringing in Randy Choate… it was a mistake.
You don’t carry a LOOGY to not face the one LH hitter you need to get out.
Matheny owned his mistake, right?
“They pull him pretty fast,” Matheny said. “Any time we bring Randy in, we have to be — in my opinion — in a game-changing situation. We have to be extremely confident that that lefty is going to stay in there. I’ve watched Clint (Hurdle) too many times. I know exactly what he’s going to do in those situations. That’s usually the deciding factor. And that’s putting Randy in a real tight spot.”
That’s from the Post-Dispatch. And it sounds like he’s not backing down from leaving Maness in. In a nutshell, he’s saying that if he brings in Choate, then the Pirates bring up another PH and he’ll be a RH.
This is a passive move from a manger that has lead an underachieving team through 130+ games. Isn’t it time that he is the one making moves to make the other team make moves instead of waiting to see how things play out and react accordingly?
Isn’t it time he goes on the offensive?
Now in his 3rd season, it doesn’t seem like Matheny possesses the ability to be introspective about his decisions and learn from the mistakes.
Why?
Because he can’t seem to admit that he made a mistake, even though Davis’ missile over the outfield wall should have been enough proof.
Photo: Fox Sports
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