'Gut feeling' doesn't pan out for Marlins' Jennings in first fateful decision
Only two days into the job, Dan Jennings has discovered just how difficult managing a professional baseball team can be.
Jennings made the first double-switch of his managerial career against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the top of the seventh on Tuesday, bringing in Ichiro Suzuki to bat in the ninth spot and left-hander Mike Dunn to relieve starter Tom Koehler.
Dunn retired the third out in the seventh, but allowed a single to the Diamondbacks' Mark Trumbo to lead off the eighth. With the meat of the lineup up, Jennings left Dunn in the game, heeding advice he received upon claiming the Marlins' managerial post.
"The managers that I talked to as I took this job said that you have to manage with your head, not your heart," Jennings said. "If you have a gut feeling, you trust it, and I had a gut feeling and it didn't turn out well."
With Trumbo on first base, Jennings waited to give the call to have righty Bryan Morris warm up in the bullpen and left Dunn in to face slugger Paul Goldschmidt.
Dunn managed to strike out Goldschmidt, an impressive feat in itself, but he didn't have the same success with the next batter, pinch-hitter A.J. Pollock, who roped a two-run line-drive home run on a belt-high fastball over the middle of the plate.
The Marlins eventually lost the game, 4-2.
"I went with a gut feeling and the gut feeling did not work," Jennings said. "[Dunn] had just made a great pitch to get Goldschmidt out and Goldschmidt's a tremendous hitter. I thought about it. Dunn is not a matchup guy, he's an attack guy. That was on me."
(h/t MLB.com)
