Monday, May 16, 2016

Post-Game 38 Thread: Laying Another Egg On National Television

From the Topps 2016 Series 1 set. How perfect.

CARDINALS 5, DODGERS 2

Dodgers are once again on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball this evening, coming off of two decent wins against St. Louis and looking for the sweep...and this time, it was late inning bullpen choices which did them in.

Joe Fucking Blanton. That was Dave Roberts' choice late in the game, after Alex Wood skated through six innings (including a very perilous sixth inning: two on and none out, and he escaped without the Cardinals scoring a run) into a 1-1 tie through six full. We aren't going to see Alex Wood make this good of a start again, so we sure as hell shouldn't waste it.

But after Louis Coleman recorded the first out, and J.P. Howell gave up a single and then got the second out (man on second), Roberts went with Joe Blanton, who has been largely useless all year. Sure enough, Blanton proceeded to give up three runs in the seventh, and then put a cherry on top by giving up another run in the top of the eighth.

Corey Seager hit a second home run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 5-2, but what the hell, Roberts? After making good bullpen calls all series, this was a horrible, horrible call. And on national television, no less. Great.

Dodgers slip out of first place thanks to the Diamondbacks rolling over and playing dead for the Giants' four-game sweep.

2 comments:

QuadSevens said...

Here's what I hope Dave Roberts was thinking:

"If I call in Blanton now, and he pitches well on national tv, maybe we can trade him!"

Now we're stuck with Blanton all year.

Steve Sax said...

+1