Hinch, in his first year as a manager, made sure that didn’t happen.<\/p>\n
He elected to turn the game over to his bullpen in the eighth inning. Diamondback relievers have the third highest ERA in the National League.<\/p>\n
Tony Pena, who threw 28 pitches in a trying outing the day before, relieved Haren. He surrendered a run and loaded the bases with two outs.<\/p>\n
With left-handed James Loney coming to the plate, Hinch went by the Book. He replaced the right-handed Pena for rookie lefty Dan Schlereth to face Loney, who is hitting 20 points less against left-handers.<\/p>\n
It backfired. Loney banged a bases-clearing double, tying the score 5-all.<\/p>\n
Now, Hinch was faced with another decision. With Loney on second representing the go-ahead run, the right-handed Casey Blake was up. Blake is hitting .386 against left-handers. On deck was left-handed Andre Ethier, who is hitting just .207 against left-handers.<\/p>\n
The Books says Hinch should either relieve Schlereth with a right-hander to face Blake or walk Blake and pitch to Etheir.<\/p>\n
Instead, Hinch chose to leave in his Schlereth to face Blake. There’s certainly nothing in the Book suggesting that strategy. Statistically, it was an awful move and a huge gamble. Blake promptly singled to center, scoring Loney to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead. To rub it in, Schlereth got Ethier to pop out weakly to short. But the damage was done.<\/p>\n The Diamondbacks went down in order in the ninth and suffered a disappointing loss.<\/p>\n So what was Hinch thinking while making the dumb … err, unconventional … move?<\/p>\n He certainly didn’t take responsibility for it by admitting he took a risk. Instead, he pointed the blame for the loss at his team’s wasted offensive opportunities.<\/p>\n He also talked with the Arizona Republic about the confidence Schlereth would have gained if he would have got the final out to perserve the tie.<\/p>\n Really? According to Hinch’s reasoning, a rookie pitcher is going to regain all the confidence he lost after coughing up a three run lead by getting one out.<\/p>\n Why are you risking a critical division game just to increase a middle reliever’s confidence anyway?<\/p>\n It was a silly move, a ridiculous excuse and a bad beat for anyone who had the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n