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Thursday, October 04, 2007 |
The 85-Pitch Mistake: Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 1
Eighty-five pitches. I don't think I've ever heard of a starter getting yanked from a game with a pitch count that low, unless (a) his name is Greg Maddux (80 pitches, these days, is about where he starts to lose focus), or (b) he's injured. But Carlos Zambrano was gone after only six innings and 85 pitches, and the inexperienced Carlos Marmol came in to lose the game. Why pull the plug on Zambrano when he was apparently cruising? Lou Piniella's answer wasn't a very satisfying one:
Piniella bristled when asked if he might be accused of looking ahead in the series.True, that."I'm not accused of anything, sir," he said. "I've got a good bullpen here, OK? I trust my bullpen.
"I'm bringing back the pitcher on three days' rest on Sunday, and I took a shot with my bullpen," Piniella said. "It didn't work today. They've done it all year. I've got confidence in them. Period. End of the story."
Piniella rejected the notion that his decision may have cost the Cubs a chance to win the best-of-five series.
"Listen, you guys, this is only the first game," he said. "There's a lot of baseball to be played in this series, OK? It's not gloom and doom, this thing."
Labels: cubs, diamondbacks, postseason, recaps
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