CINCINNATI – So you want to be a big league baseball manager, eh? Welcome to September and a pennant race.
The Reds and Cardinals both appear destined to make the postseason but neither team is coasting. Tuesday night was a playoff atmosphere, even if less than half of Great American Ball Park was occupied. For all the criticism Reds manager Dusty Baker receives, his moves Tuesday paid off in a 1-0 victory that moves the Reds to within 1½ games of the Cardinals for second place in the National League Central division and the first NL wild card spot. They remain 3 ½ games behind first place Pittsburgh.
This game had a little bit of everything. The starting pitchers – Homer Bailey of the Reds and Michael Wacha of St. Louis – gave up little, and when they did their defenses took it away. The most prolific minor league base stealer in two decades went up against the best catcher in the game and won. A batter can’t get down two attempts at a sacrifice bunt but all is good when he drives in the winning run. A relief pitcher who hasn’t pitched in a game in 10 days looked as unhittable as ever against the heart of the best offense in the NL.
Managers always have reasons for the moves they make, whether you agree with them or not. Those reasons are thought out and based on mounds of information. You think you can cite all of the relevant stats on BaseballReference.com, and you can, but how quickly can you put that information together and formulize a strategy in the heat of the moment?
When your pitcher is dominating the game, as Bailey was, but you’ve got the opportunity to push across more runs, what do you do? Go.
Bailey had retired 14 batters in a row and had thrown 106 pitches. For a lot of guys that’s a warning sign number but Bailey has shown consistently that he can go to the 120-pitch range and pitch well. If Baker allows Bailey to hit for himself with two outs and Todd Frazier representing an insurance run at third base, you could understand why.
“I didn’t want to take Homer out in that situation. He didn’t want to come out,” said Baker, “but he had a lot of pitches. He was going to go up in the 120s and you’ve got another game or two to pitch.”
Instead Chris Heisey went in to pinch hit, turning the game over to the bullpen. Heisey struck out, stranding Frazier but the Reds had their 1-0 lead thanks to Frazier’s RBI double that scored pinch-runner Billy Hamilton from second base. Hamilton had stolen second base after replacing Ryan Ludwick, who had singled to lead off the inning against reliever Seth Maness. Frazier tried bunting Hamilton to third base but twice wasn’t able to get the bunt down.
“I’m fortunate I got the job done,” said Frazier. “That’s just the way it is. That’s baseball in a nutshell. The manager looks the best when he’s right and he’s the goat when he’s wrong. That’s not really how it should be because nine-and-a-half times out of 10 Dusty is always right. That’s why he’s here. He understands.”
St. Louis manager Mike Matheny brought in Maness to replace Wacha after the rookie had held the Reds scoreless on three hits over the first six innings. Wacha had thrown 80 pitches but this was just the fifth start of the season for him, his first since Aug. 10. His last six appearances had been in relief.
Manny Parra relieved Bailey in the eighth inning. The lefthander retired the first two batters he faced, lefties Kolten Wong and Daniel Descalso, on a fly ball and a strikeout. Parra has had a resurgent season but his numbers against left-handers are significantly better than they are against righties. Right-handed batters have a .549 slugging percentage against Parra compared to just .278 for left-handers in a similar number of at-bats.
Baker left Parra in knowing full well he would be facing David Freese as a pinch hitter. Freese is hitting .292 with a slugging percentage of .438 against the Reds this season. He’s had 14 hits, nine RBI and one home run against them in 13 games. There was a method to Baker’s madness.
“We had to make the decision, would you rather face Freese or would you rather face (Matt) Adams?” said Baker. “That’s the problem with their bench. Freese, World Series hero, or Adams, who can hit the ball out of the ballpark?”
In nine games against the Reds this season, Adam has six hits. Half of them are home runs. His slugging percentage against them is .810.
Parra walked Freese on a 3-2 pitch but got Matt Carpenter to fly out to Heisey in left field to end the inning.
Aroldis Chapman hadn’t pitched since Aug. 24 at Milwaukee. He hadn’t the opportunity but in he was coming into the game in the ninth to face Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, and Allen Craig. If Chapman had any rust, he didn’t show it. Chapman struck out the side.
Sometimes managers can be so smart.
