The blame for this shit sandwich of a game lies at the feet of Dusty Baker and Dusty Baker alone.
Good managers build plans to get through games. They know who they’re going to use and what they’re going to do if their initial plan doesn’t work.
Dusty Baker did what he always does. He panicked and brought in his shitty, slop throwing security blanket. And exactly what you’d expect happened when you put in a mid innings reliever in a high tension situation when the guy hasn’t pitched hardly at all in a month.
He’s a fucking joke of a manager, and this team will continue to suffer infuriating losses because of his fucking moronic strategic decision.
WTF?!?!? I go to bed up 7-0 and wake up to this shit?
This throws into sharp relief that we need not one, but two new arms in the bullpen…and a new manager.
And whomever up ahead posted it, I agree about Raley and Smith. They need to go. Click should DFA them and go with two no names from AAA just to send a message to the rest of the bullpen…and Dusty.
I did go to bed also up 7-0 with Garcia mowing them down. I have read the GZ so I know what happened, and I agree with the finger-pointing at Baker’s use of the bullpen. He seems to think his pitchers are all the same so he uses them interchangeably. His infatuation, no love, for Raley is mystifying. That game should have been won, even with Garcia’s falling off a cliff with a 7-0 lead, which is equally mystifying to me.
I wonder how involved Strom is in these decisions. Changing pitchers is a manager’s call, but I wonder how involved Strom is in the decisions of who gets up and when as a game progresses. Baker obviously thinks Raley is a guy for high pressure, game situations, and I think he is a middle innings “hold them right there” guy. I wonder what Strom thinks and how involved he is in slotting pitchers into specific game situations.
Agreed. Stanek has been very good of late, and one walk, even if it was a weak hitter, is no reason to panic and to pull him. And for Raley with the game on the line???
I watched a recap of the 2019 ALCS G6 the other day.
I had forgotten it was a bullpen game. Seeing all those guys (Peacock/James/Urquidy/Pressly/Harris/Smith/Osuna) again and recalling the level they were performing at then was sobering.
No bullpen is perfect and that one wasn’t even in that game. But the 2021 pen can’t sniff the 2019 pen. And it’s not like the 2020 pen was good.
There are good arms in this bullpen, but they are different people with different abilities. They are not all high-leverage situation relievers. Baker does not seem to recognize that.
I think Raley is a guy you put in when the game is way out of hand one way or the other. Anything less than 6-7 runs one way or the other, he ain’t getting warm in my bullpen.
I am not that strict about run margins, but I would use Raley only in the middle innings to start an inning or in a lefty on lefty situation maybe. Never, ever Raley in the 8th or 9th with the game on the line. I think Taylor is much better than Raley in those high-leverage situations.
If he was actually caught with stuff, and I believe this is a postgame determination by somebody other than the umpires, then it’s a 10-game suspension.