Sunday Morning
Within the space of 29 minutes both Bay Area teams suffered agonizing losses.
The Giants might live for another day, the A’s won’t.
The A’s lost when their starting pitcher, Barry Zito, didn’t want to return to the mound in the eighth inning because his legs were starting to feel funny and he thought he was losing his fluidity on the mound.
Huh?
Can you picture Juan Marichal, Jack Morris, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Tim Hudson, or Dave
Stewart saying such a thing?
No way. Unbelievable!
Click below for more!To compound matters Ken Macha accepted Zito’s assessment of his condition and didn’t tell the enigmatic lefty to go back out there and finish the job.
Zito looked in complete control finishing the seventh inning. There is no way he leaves the biggest game of the season with the alternative Jim Mecir and company.
This was a playoff game. No tomorrow for Oakland if they lose.
If Zito is gone, bring in ground ball specialist Chad Bradford, not the inconsistent Mecir. Everyone in the park sensed trouble.
Then later in the fateful eighth, why pitch to Garret Anderson with Jeff DaVanon on deck with the leading run in scoring position?
Octavio Dotel can’t get lefties out. Anderson is one of the best lefthanded hitters in the game.
Boom! Single to right game untied, run scores, it’s essentially over.
One more chance. Jermaine Dye leads off eighth with a walk. What else is new?
Hatteberg four for his last fifty one is now facing Frankie Rodriguez. Bunt him over. Maybe a flare can score Dye and tie the score. No chance of using that strategy.
Rodriguez strikes out Hatteberg and then fans the next two for good measure.
Barry Zito made a very poor decision and in baseball history this will go down as one of the worst moves a former Cy Young Award winner ever pulled.
This team needs a major overhaul next year.
Felipe Alou just couldn’t get enough out of his pen when he needed it most. This meltdown could be seen coming a mile away. It was just a matter of time until the bull pen couldn’t get it done.
If the Astros lose today with Clemens going on three days rest, then the Giants better hope for complete games from Jason Schmidt today and from Noah Lowry who gets the start Monday in the tie breaker.
Two good seasons for tough teams that were flawed from the start, but stayed in the race the whole season.
Too bad Saturday turned out so poorly for both.
0 comments
Wow Marty, strong words. They are all, of course, very good points. Zito certainly should have known better. He couldn’t have felt much worse than he did in the 7th. The pen obviously needs an overhaul and one of the Big 3 perhaps needs to be sent packing as well. Maybe Zito insured himself that distinction with his lack of will to win. The team needs some hitters, too. They obviously are going to need someone to replace Dye and a legit firstbaseman would be nice. Or are they going to give Johnson a chance? This team might have too many rookies in its lineup for its own good again. Well, as I’ve been mentioning to friends, the A’s have had its window of opportunity. The players deserve plenty of blame for the four straight 1st round exits, but so does ownership for not spending enough to help the team win. With the crony capitalist deal that went down in Washington, the A’s are that much closer to San Jose. Oh well…
-Mike E.
Marty,
It is hard to imagine that the same Barry Zito who has pitched deep into some of the toughest games of past postseasons suddenly needs a trip to the Wizard to claim a heart.
I think there are a few more points here to help understand Zito’s decision, and why he was doing what would give his team the best chance of winning, at least from his perspective.
If I recall correctly, three times this year Zito has pitched deep into games only to give up big hits in the late innings that led to the team’s downfall, most recently in his previous start Monday against Seattle. Recall last year’s playoffs, too, when he pitched so well only to run out of steam in the late innings against Boston and cost the A’s the fateful fifth game.
During the past two seasons, both Hudson and Mulder have attempted to pitch through ailments, only to hurt the team by doing so.
When Zito’s legs began cramping Saturday, he faced a no-win situation. If he goes out and pitches, only to give up the lead, then he faces criticism for not coming clean with his coaches and trying to pitch when he was unable to do so. If he comes out and the bullpen messes up, then he faces the critics who believe he should have gutted it out whether he was capable or not. It was the Sophie’s choice of baseball.
Once again, this is the pitcher who three times this year has gone too long, trying to tough it out for the team. For most of the second half, the bullpen had been one of the A’s strengths, with Mecir and Rincon effectively handling the eighth inning.
As we read Zito’s comments in the morning papers, it is clear that he anguished over the decision to leave and had no desire to do so. He did what seemed best for the team; the hard choice that made the most sense under the circumstances. In this case, the decision to leave was harder than the decision to remain.
Unfortunately, sometimes the best decision just does not work.
Best to you,
Casey Tefertiller
Marty,
I understand your thoughts on the Zito story, but as someone with 15 years of pro baseball experience, I must disagree with your assessment of Zito’s toughness.
For starters, I would like everyone to remember last year’s ALCS between Boston and New York when then Red Sox manager, Grady Little, asked his ace, Pedro Martinez, if he could go back out there for another inning after throwing about 120 pitches. Of course, Martinez said yes to his manager, only to fall apart on the mound with his command. We all know who won that game. In post game interviews, Pedro admitted he lied to Grady and was actually out of gas, but he was NOT going to look less than a warrior to Grady and his teammates, so he lied. Grady Little lost his job. The Yankees went to another World Series.
Back to yesterday’s ballgame between the Angels and A’s, this could not have been an easy conversation for Zito to have with Curt Young or Ken Macha. We do not know who initiated this conversation, but that is even a moot point. The bottom line is Zito did not feel he could be effective in the 8th inning, so he did the right thing and spoke up.
Zito’s toughness for the first 7 innings in the biggest game of the year should be commended. He competed like a warrior. As fans, yes, we wanted him to go back out, but you have to respect the fact that this guy was out of gas and actually spoke up. Pedro did not, and it cost his team a World Series appearance.
It is nice to have a scapegoat, like Grady Little or Steve Bartman, to lash out at, but I feel Zito’s performance and dugout decision should not be blasted. He competed like a warrior, he was honest, but his team lost. Likewise, Pedro Martinez competed like a warrior, was not honest, and his team lost, too.
These are great stories and great discussion pieces because both men tried to do the right thing, but instead, got the very result they tried to avoid.
It is time to give Zito a pat on the back and thank him for a 4-2 lead after 7 innings.
Thanks for your time.
John K.
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By the way, it has been written that Greg Maddux, one of the greatest pitchers of our generation, will initiate conversations with his managers during a game to let them know when his body has fatigued to the point that he no longer feels he can be effective. His managers trust him to be honest.
I think Zito needed to speak up. He was concerned about the team. He came with his A game and fought hard through 7 innings. Yeh, if the 2 errors aren’t made he would have pictched 14 pitches less. You can tell from Zito’s comments that he feels that the team management has made him the goat of the game. Wrong. I blame Macha for bringing in Mecir–why not Harden or even Bradford? Mecir has been a disaster waiting to happen all year.
I don’t want to see Zito gone. He has found himself and at 26 years old has his best years ahead of him.
Actually, it is easier to take this loss than to get beat up by the Yankees or Redsox and have to listen to all that post season failure stuff again.
Now, the Giants loss has to rest on Felipe. Why would you bring your closer in in the 8th inning for the 5th consecutive day. No one in their right mind does that. It was plain that he had nothing left–and you let him walk 3 batters. Bad decision all the way around.
I think Zito leaving after seven innings and a hundred and fourteen pitches, was fine. That’s what you have a bullpen for–right. If the A’s bullpen executes the last six out, we’re not talking about this issue. Like years past, once again, the A’s lack the killer instinct to close down crucial games in the late innings. The A’s could have won the game, and I don’t buy the better team won. When you talk about managerial strategy, that flies out the door.
What was Ken Macha thinking when he brought in Mecir? Even the crowd groaned and questioned the move.
You wondered.. Has Macha has seen Mecir’s clutch meltowns in the past?
Macha allowed the A’s post season hopes to be placed in the unreliable arm of Mecir.
Marty
IMO you are off base on the Zito comments for all the reasons discussed here in previous posts.
But it sounds like you’re off the Ken Macha bandwagon after two seasons of defending him and I am in agreement with that.
The September failure of the A’s, I believe, can be traced to Macha’s mismanagment in all the areas within his control: strategy, line-up, and pitching decisions.
He ran our regulars ragged while allowing the McMillons etc to rot on the bench. Yesterday’s game decisions were a microcosm of a seasons worth of faulty strategy, ie, no bunts to move runners and stupid choices in relievers and who to pitch to.
He is a Dolt that must be replaced by a stronger Managerial presence. The question is whether Billy Beane will allow such a hiring.
Thank you for another season of interesting baseball commentary.
Reno Bill
Angels Fan Here – Just a note to say thanks for your excellent insights all year. You understand the game much better than the guys on ESPN, etc. Good luck to your team next year.
I appreciate the points of view expressed above. My feeling was that Zito should have given it a shot and then could have been bailed out at the first sign of trouble in the 8th. Throwing 12 pitches in the seventh inning and getting out of that inning so easily leads me to believe he was doing better than he thought he was doing. I wish he would have talked it over with the pitching coach and manager ala Greg Maddux instead of saying emphatically that he was done.
In Pedro’s case the manager left him in way too long after it was obvious he was finished. The Angels had Molina, a pinch hitter and then the top of the order coming up against Zito. One batter gets on and then he’s gone. Maybe Molina would have had trouble hitting the curve or fastball.
Who knows? Zito was fabulous for 7 innings in the biggest game of the year I would have liked to have seen him pitch until he was in trouble. If there was a power arm coming in in the eighth inning I would feel differently. Mecir and Rincon had been pitching well, but now you are asking for six outs from at least three pitchers instead of perhaps two pitchers, one being your starter and the other your closer in the 9th inning instead of the 8th.
Anyway, it was a terrific season and 91 wins don’t happen by accident.
The A’s stopped hitting and the pitching ERA jumped up in September that’s why they lost the lead so its not fair to blame the season on one game, this was coming for three weeks. When the A’s can’t win at home it’s sure trouble. I now see that more clearly.
This will be some challenging off season.
Marty
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