There sat Nate Robertson exhibiting his best Thinker pose. Alone in the bullpen, chewing his rally gum hoping it would work in his favor. And by work in his favor, I mean get the phone call from the dugout saying he’s in to pitch.
Unfortunately, Nate was the odd man out in the bullpen tonight (discounting Ryan Perry who would not throw tonight no matter what since he threw a lot last night). If I were Nate, I might feel as if the skip (or acting skipper since Leyland got tossed) had zero confidence in me to come in and throw a scoreless inning or three.
Heck, there you have Brandon Lyon working on fumes in the bottom of the 13th, approaching 60-some pitches in his third inning of work when normally he’s only a one, maximum two, inning guy. Meanwhile, a former starter and supposedly a long reliever this year sits in the bullpen spitting seeds and trying to fit absurd wads of big league chew into his mouth as his teammate’s arm falls off.
Now there is speculation that Nate might be injured. Also, you can’t plan for extras or an 18 inning game. You go with your regular rotation of relievers and typically, in the end, you have to let one guy go longer than he’s capable as seemed to be the case with Lyon.
However, I will say that if Nate was healthy enough to toss tonight, the decision to leave Lyon in the game for that final inning, better yet, to face Crede with the bases juiced was just damn asinine.
I understand getting a guy all the way (warmed up) and bringing him in to face a hitter who might very well end the game on one swing could wind up being a wasted arm. However, if that happened to Nate surely he’d be ready to go again tomorrow. Plus, taking Lyon out at an opportune time might decrease his needed rest time (although he wouldn’t be able to go tomorrow anyway after that second inning).
Almost all Tiger fans are saying that Joe Crede is a Tiger killer and it was inevitable what was going to happen. Crede hits so well against the Tigers usually, we mistake him for A-Rod fresh off a roids cycle. In addition to Lyon on fumes, not getting that first pitch strike call against the Tiger killer himself in the Metrodome, all spelled recipe for disaster.
Well, Crede might be a Tiger killer, but he’s no Nate Killer. Nate has faced Crede the most out of all the current Tigers pitchers–40 times to be exact–and Crede fares at just a .143 clip! He is just 5-35 against the Nate dogg. That is by far Crede’s worst BA against any Tiger’s pitcher who has faced him more than three times.
So if Nate was healthy he should have been in there, at least to face Crede in that situation. We might very well find out that he wasn’t healthy, thus making this post a complete waste of life, but I think it’s definitely worth mentioning that all those who thought it was poor bullpen management now have the stats more than anything else to back up their points against Lloyd McClendon (who was acting as manager in place of the ejected Leyland).
I guess we’ll see what should/could have been come tomorrow upon hearing the status on Nate’s health.
The show must go on, though. Justin Verlander will toe the rubber at 1 PM Thursday with hopes to salvage something of this three game set. On the bright side, the Tigers head into Thursday’s match up no different than they did coming into Wednesday night’s game: in first place.
Go Tigers!
UPDATE: Nate Robertson was indeed hurt. He was put on the 15-day DL this morning. Tigers are bringing up some 23-year old dude named Luke French. Sounds like a model, but hopefully he can throw the rock, too.
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