Geeze, what an epic collapse on the part of the Texas Rangers last night. That can't be good for the ol' moxie in terms of the rest of the series. That aside, the Rangers reminded me of some of the early season Oriole games last night. By that, I mean that Ron Washington seemed to manage the game based upon sound common sense and reason. Started CJ Wilson pitched seven solid innings (plus two batters), and was lifted in the top of the eighth. Then the bullpen imploded and we know the rest.
Dave Trembley would do the same thing back in April and May, and he was always let down by that common sense. By this, I mean that Trembley would sit on the bench and look down the lineup and figure out how he was going to match up down the line in the game. While he was doing that, the other team would sit in the other dugout and just plan on hitting whatever came their way. (It didn't help things when Trembley seemingly had a different pen everyday due to injuries.) For the record, I'm right there with Trembley. I firmly believe that matching up in the later innings in games is sound baseball acumen, and the right thing to do. So I suppose had I been managing the team, I would have been fired in June as well.
Buck Showalter did his share of matching up also during his two months in the dugout. The difference was that he didn't do it every time. Dave Trembley at times seemed unwilling to stray from that sound baseball strategy. In no way am I suggesting that he should have thrown caution to the wind and just thrown someone out there without any idea of why he was doing it. However it got to the point that teams were stacking the heart of their lineups with lefties because Trembley loved utilizing left-handed specialists. Most specialists aren't finesse pitchers and thus if that guy got in trouble, Trembley would either have to bring in a righty or leave the guy in there.
I'm a creature of habbit, and I don't like surprises. (I'm turning 30 in a couple of months and I'm already praying that nobody's organizing a surprise party!) Believe me, I'm the most predictable person in the world in terms of schedules and timing (right down to the minute). However that's not always a good thing in sports, because in being predictable you lay a blue print for the opposition to beat you. By not always matching up, Buck Showalter allowed the Orioles to remain competitive for nine innings as opposed to six. And they won a lot of games. So Ron Washington might want to call Dave Trembley today, and perhaps learn from Trembley's mistakes.
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