Here’s my question: does Clint Hurdle realize that just because he has 25 guys on the roster doesn’t mean that he has to use all of them? I know that on a lot of nights I praise Hurdle’s quick hook, but it seemed really out of place in the sixth inning with Charlie Morton tonight. He was below 90 pitches and was throwing well despite Roger Bernadina’s homer earlier in the inning. With Werth and Zimmerman already retired, he was through the worst of the Nats lineup. Why suddenly yank him there? Using Watson there meant he wasn’t available in the eighth, where Moskos came in and failed to get an out. Which lead to Resop pitching in the eighth instead of the ninth, which lead to Tim Wood being shouldered with the ninth because Joel Hanrahan is forbidden by law from appearing in a tie game.
I understand Hurdle’s point that Veras and Resop have pitched a lot this year (in response to why Veras didn’t come out for an obviously struggling Wood in the ninth and possibly to why Resop didn’t go a second inning), but it just seemed to me like the situation the Pirates were in with Wood in the ninth was created by Hurdle’s Captain Hook impersonation earlier in the game.
Of course, it’s not Hurdle’s fault that the offense made Tom Gorzelanny look like Steve Carlton tonight and it’s not his fault that they didn’t cash in on the few chances they did have. There’s a chance that even with Resop pitching in the ninth and Hanrahan pitching in the tenth and Veras pitching in the eleventh that Tim Wood still blows the game in the 12th, because that’s how the offense looked tonight. That’s always a danger with this club as currently constructed; their real strength on offense lately has been seeing a lot of pitches and stretching pitchers out, but they didn’t do that tonight and it was as ugly as you’d expect.
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