CINCINNATI -- There aren't many better baseball managers than Bruce Bochy. He's guided the San Francisco Giants to three World Series championships in the past five seasons, including last fall. Bochy has been there, done that in his 21 seasons, the first 12 of which were with San Diego. He's won more games than any other active manage, now 1,638 after Sunday's 9-8 defeat of the Reds, Cincinnati's third straight loss after taking the first game of the series on Thursday.
Bochy is still working on the balancing act. Every manager has to figure that out on their own. Bryan Price is in Year 2 of his balancing routine with the Reds. Who to start and when to start them? Where do you bat them in the lineup? How long do you let a player ride out a slow stretch? When do you go get your starter? How do you manipulate the limited number of innings you know you have for several pitchers who are experiencing the major leagues for the first time?
The reality of managing a big league club is much different than a fantasy league team. Reality tells you you're not just managing for today but for tomorrow and the next day as well. And somewhere in the May thought pattern is August.
Patience is a hard characteristic to master in baseball.
Price and the Reds have been rewarded for their patience with Marlon Byrd and Zack Cozart this season. They continue to be patient with Jay Bruce, who maybe just might be working his way out of a career-worst slump to begin a season. Bruce had three hits, including a solo home run, and two RBI giving him a second straight multiple-hit game for the first time since last August. On Sunday the decision was made to move Billy Hamilton out of the leadoff spot and down to No. 8 in the batting order. Hamilton responded by driving in two runs Sunday with a fielder's choice groundout and sacrifice fly in his first two at-bats plus adding a single in the fifth inning.
Managers have to be part psychologists, part soothsayers.
"We're going to see where it goes," said Price about the Hamilton move. "It's kind of like sorting out the bullpen. You know, we didn't get off to the start we kind of expected to with the bullpen and had to kind of find our way, and offensively it's been a little bit more challenging than I anticipated it to be consistently really efficient offensively."
Bochy has earned the reputation of being a master manipulator of his roster, be it position players or his pitching staff. The Giants got right fielder Hunter Pence back in the lineup Saturday after he started the season on the disabled list with a fractured left forearm suffered in spring training. That adds to an already crowded outfield in which a postseason regular in Gregor Blanco is just starting to take advantage of playing time and key offseason acquisition Nori Aoki didn't start the first three games of this four-game series.
"The type of player I was, I was a role player so you do think of those guys," said Bochy, who played nine seasons in the majors but never more than 63 games in a single season. "A lot of them have been here together. I think they have a good understanding of the situation and how I do things. Like Gregor. I can't compliment him enough. Here's a game that's started every postseason game for us and hasn't been playing much but he's stayed ready and when he got some playing time he took advantage of it. That's why it's hard to take him out of the lineup. But they're professionals and it's a very unselfish group. That makes my job a lot easier when you have unselfish players like we do."
Sunday was Bochy at his bullpen-maneuvering best. He used six relievers after the Reds chased San Francisco starter Chris Heston in the third inning without retiring any of the six batters he faced. Yusmeiro Petit got the Giants out of the inning with the lead still intact, 6-5, and finished off two more innings still ahead, 7-6.
Javier Lopez, George Kontos, Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla worked the final four innings. Three times the Reds had the potential tying run on third base against a San Francisco reliever but all three times they failed to get that runner to the plate.
Behind all of the great psychologists and soothsayers of the game, there are players making their decisions pay off or look questionable.
"There were little things for both teams," said Price after Sunday's loss. "There were certain plays that could've been made but weren't that made a difference in a run. Maybe we're still playing or maybe we get the lead. That's how these games are played... Today they outplayed us."
