Was at the MIA-BOS game last night. Sox crush Nolasco, take a nine run lead. Ozzie throws up the white flag and takes out Reyes, HanRam and Stanton while leaving Chris Hatcher in for almost 60 pitches even as he allows 7 baserunners in 1.2 IP. In the 6th inning, John Buck takes one in a bad spot while behind the plate and needs a few minutes to recover. An inning later he crushes a huge dinger, and it's obvious that he can barely make it around the bases (well, obvious to those paying attention...the majority of the crowd just thought he was hot-dogging it and let him have it). He's clearly either pulled something, or has a cramp, or is still feeling the effects of the groin shot. So what does Ozzie do? On a night when both the heat and humidity are near 90, after having already pulled out his star players, and down by eight runs, he sends Buck out to keep catching. Steve Cishek comes in to pitch the 8th, and his nasty slider keeps missing on the low outside corner and Buck has to constantly reach out and over to block it, and he can barely stand up after about four of those in a row. But he guts it out. It finally catches up to him in the 9th, where in his final AB he swings at one pitch, grabs his right hammy and has to be helped into the dugout.
I understand pulling your star players under these conditions. But why would you leave in the guy who has the hardest physical job on the field, when he's struggling to the point where a fan sitting 300 feet away can see what's happening? Shouldn't somebody in that dugout have noticed and said something?
Sometimes I wish I had the chance to watch every game, every night; there are so many nuances to the game that we don't get simply by looking at box scores...
Ozzie...a menace to his own players?
Ozzie...a menace to his own players?
"There is but one game and that game is baseball." – John McGraw
Re: Ozzie...a menace to his own players?
There is one Ozzie and Ozzie is his Ozzie