So, the Angels play the game the right way, and do all the little things, do they not?
The squeeze was, quite obviously, an absolute joke of a call by Scioscia. There's one out. 2-0 count. You have a chance to get the run in with a fly ball or a hit, and even if Aybar--who shouldn't be hitting for himself there anyway--doesn't get the job done, you've got another chance with Figgins, your leadoff hitter. To choose a suicide squeeze--where you get one chance, and if you fail, you're completely screwed (thus the name)--over those options is absolutely insane. It's a manager continuing to ignore both the situation and his personnel, and insisting on playing the Angels' patented brand of "small ball" even when it couldn't be less appropriate. It's not taking a chance, it's not ballsy. It's dumb.
The choice of pitchers for the ninth is similarly confounding. Shields threw 28 pitches on Sunday night, getting seven outs. He threw 15 more in the 8th tonight, setting Boston down in order. The other options were Arredondo--who threw 28 pitches himself on Sunday--or K-Rod, who threw 33. You have to have an incredible lack of faith in those other two guys in that spot to stick with Shields. Leaving him in after the double--which wasn't crushed, but it's not like these are good pitches--is nuts, and sticking with him after Kotsay ripped a first pitch curveball to Teixeira (incredible play) just makes no sense.
While I'm at it, how about Caray's call of Hunter's game-tying single? It's not so much that he said, "and nobody's chanting now", but the defiant, unprofessional tone with which he said it. At least the series is over, and we're done with him for awhile, right? Wrong.
In the end, everything probably worked out as it should have, with the AL's two best teams, the Red Sox and Rays, meeting in the ALCS. Oh yeah, the Rays advanced this afternoon as well. I guess I didn't mention that. It was quite an afternoon. Seems as though B.J. Upton's shoulder is feeling a bit better.
Original Story:
http://vegaswatch.net/2008/10/what-ju...
