The second guessers
Posted by keithosaunders on November 2, 2015
I killed Matt Harvey back in September over the maxed-out innings controversy. I said he was gutless and that he was a pussy. Well I was wrong. He pitched his ass off in the post season leaving nothing on the table. Last night he was as dominating as a pitcher can be and showed no signs of weakening in the 8th inning.
Terry Collins showed guts in allowing Harvey to come out for the 9th. I don’t want to hear this BS about automatically going to the closer. Who are they going to? Mariano Rivera? Familia had a great season but by the time the Series came around he was used up meat and the Royals can hit him.
I can remember a delicate-genius manager, Tony La Russa, who went to his closer in the 9th inning. This was a pitcher who would end his career with 390 saves and he probably would have had the most ever had he not been a starter the first 10 years. I bet Kirk Gibson remembers him. If Dennis Eckersley can fail (and even the great Mariano couldn’t get it done in 2001) then it’s certainly not written in stone that Familia gets three easy 9th inning outs.
This is not a cookie cutter game. Just because you have a closer doesn’t mean he will succeed every single time out, as evidenced by game one of this Series. If you want to kill Collins how about this? He had two starters in his bullpen, both pitching effectively — Jon Niese & Bartolo Colon. How about sticking with them for more than an inning at a time?
This entry was posted on November 2, 2015 at 9:11 pm and is filed under baseball. Tagged: Bartolo Colon, Dennis Eckersley, Jeurys Familia, Jonathon Niese, Kirk Gibson, Mariano Rivera, Matt Harvey, Mets, New York Mets, Terry Collins, Tony Larussa, World Series. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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jcv25 said
I agree with Harvey pitching the 9th. I honestly would’ve been extremely mad had he been taken out. He was pitching well and it was his last outing of 2015 so he deserved to be on the mound for the 9th.
sportsattitudes said
I killed him also but only because I thought someone had gotten to him a la Strasburg and he was going to diva-up. But he manned-up and I was thrilled to see him take that ball into the ninth. So proud of both teams’ play in the Series.
keithosaunders said
I thought the same thing you did but he proved us wrong. I wonder if that was a case of the Mets handling the affair badly. They should told him to say nothing or that it’s up to the manager.