In a different baseball galaxy, perhaps the one Cal Raleigh nearly scraped with his game-tying homer, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider would draw praise and Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson scorn.<\/p>\n
Instead, after Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, a 6-2 Mariners triumph that turned on Raleigh\u2019s leadoff homer and Eugenio Su\u00e1rez\u2019s grand slam in the eighth inning, it\u2019s the other way around.<\/p>\n
Such is the beauty of baseball, especially in October, when every managerial decision is only as good as its outcome. Wrongheaded choices turn out well. Well-intended ones backfire. And fans are left to howl about the idiot in the dugout wrecking their otherwise perfect team.<\/p>\n
The Mariners, leading three games to two, are one win away from their first World Series appearance as the ALCS heads back to Toronto. But until the eighth, Wilson seemed destined to be criticized for removing right-hander Bryce Miller after a leadoff single in the fifth. And Schneider seemed destined to be celebrated for sticking with righty Kevin Gausman against Raleigh, a hitter who was 9-for-19 with four homers against him, in the bottom half. Gausman retired Raleigh with a runner on base to end the threat.<\/p>\n
By the eighth, the Jays were six outs away from needing only one win in two games at home to reach their first World Series since their back-to-back titles in 1992 and \u201993. And their 2-1 lead was attributable, at least in part, to Wilson\u2019s decision-making.<\/p>\n
Wilson removed Miller for righty Matt Brash, who allowed a two-out RBI double by George Springer. And he followed Brash with righty Bryan Woo, who was pitching for the first time since Sept. 19 due to a strained right pectoral muscle. Wilson had said he wanted to find a soft landing for Woo. So much for that: Woo entered Game 5 with the score 1-1, and proceeded to give up the go-ahead run.<\/p>\n
Then it was Schneider\u2019s turn for a critical decision, with the 2-3-4 hitters in Wilson\u2019s revamped lineup \u2014 Raleigh, Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor \u2014 due to bat in the eighth. Wilson made significant alterations for Game 5, shaking up things after the Mariners scored only six runs the previous two nights. Julio Rodr\u00edguez batted leadoff for only the second time since April. The struggling Randy Arozarena dropped to the No. 5 spot.<\/p>\n
It was the first time all season Wilson tried this particular combination of players. And wouldn\u2019t you know it? Raleigh and Su\u00e1rez, the only hitters among the top six who remained in the same spots, wound up being the ones who etched their names in Seattle baseball lore.<\/p>\n
But back to Schneider\u2019s choice at the top of the eighth, after righty Louis Varland pitched 1 1\/3 scoreless innings in relief of Gausman. To protect a one-run lead in that situation, many postseason managers go straight to their closer against the opponents\u2019 biggest threats, and perhaps even extend him for a six-out save. But the Jays\u2019 closer, Jeff Hoffman, is less trustworthy than most closers. During the regular season, he allowed 15 homers, second among relievers only to Washington\u2019s Jackson Rutledge.<\/p>\n
Hoffman has fared well in the postseason, giving up one run \u2014 and no homers \u2014 in 4 1\/3 innings. However, he has yet to pitch in a close game. Schneider wanted to turn around Raleigh, a switch-hitter, by using a left-hander. Raleigh\u2019s splits are fairly even, but he faced only righties in his first 20 plate appearances of the series.<\/p>\n
Schneider\u2019s logic wasn\u2019t awful. Neither, in some ways, was his choice of Brendon Little, who to that point had allowed only one homer to a right-handed hitter in 162 plate appearances this season, including the playoffs. Little\u2019s 30.8 percent strikeout rate during the regular season was also the best among the Jays\u2019 relievers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle\u2019s been one of our best pitchers in big spots,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cTough guy to elevate.\u201d<\/p>\n
True, but Little had been less dominant in the postseason, giving up a run in Game 3 of the Division Series against the New York Yankees, then throwing a wild pitch and allowing an inherited runner to score on an RBI single by Polanco in Game 1 of the ALCS.<\/p>\n
If the Jays lose this series, Schneider likely will hear about his eighth-inning choices for a long time. He seemed to understand as much, saying, \u201cSecond-guessing is part of it.\u201d But nothing makes a manager look worse than a bad bullpen. And the Jays\u2019 bullpen has been a trouble spot all season.<\/p>\n
Consider Schneider\u2019s options. The Jays\u2019 other main lefty reliever, Mason Fluharty, had pitched each of the previous two nights. A third, Eric Lauer, is a swingman, not a swing-and-miss, high-leverage type. Righty Chris Bassitt, coming off lower back inflammation, had pitched only once since Sept. 18, appearing in Game 2 of this series. Another righty, Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez, later gave up the slam to Su\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n
\ufeff<\/p>\n
So, why not Hoffman?<\/p>\n
\u201cThought about that, for sure,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cAgain, we\u2019ve relied on every single guy on our roster to get a lot of wins this year. So, could have done that, and then you think about who do you want in the ninth inning, who do they have coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoffman had not made an appearance of more than one inning since April 30. Two teams, the Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles, passed on him in free agency last offseason because of concerns about his shoulder. After signing a three-year, $33 million deal with the Jays, he was healthy all season. But he was inconsistent, too.<\/p>\n
So, Little it was. And on a 2-0 sinker, Raleigh skied a ball with a 43-degree launch angle, matching the highest of his career. He wasn\u2019t sure it would go out. He said if the roof at T-Mobile Park had been open, maybe the result would have been different. But the ball landed perhaps 5 feet beyond the left-field wall for his (gasp!) 64th homer.<\/p>\n
Little then walked Polanco and Naylor before Schneider mercifully removed him at the three-batter minimum. Alas, Schneider\u2019s next choice, Dom\u00ednguez, hit Arozarena, who in his past 25 games was batting .158. Then came Su\u00e1rez, and the home run that evoked a legendary postseason slam by the Mariners\u2019 senior director of hitting strategy, Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez, in Game 4 of the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees.<\/p>\n
Wilson, in his postgame interview, took six questions before getting asked about his choice to remove Miller. He talked about the eighth-inning rally. About the electric crowd. About the additions of Su\u00e1rez and Naylor at the deadline. About S\u00faarez\u2019s even demeanor, even when he is struggling. About Naylor\u2019s defense and about Woo.<\/p>\n
Then, Miller.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Bryce was throwing the ball well,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe had the ability with our bullpen (to remove him). We were not as rested as yesterday, but we had a good handle on what guys were able to do today. It was a situation where we wanted to keep it as close as possible at that point, and so going to Brash felt like the natural lift right there with the leadoff guy on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move didn\u2019t work out, but in the end, it barely mattered. Wilson landed in the right baseball galaxy, Schneider the wrong one. It could have been the other way around. If not for the human beings with the bats and balls, it could have been a much different story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a different baseball galaxy, perhaps the one Cal Raleigh nearly scraped with his game-tying homer, Toronto Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,5162,85,5161],"class_list":["post-222851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}