Two games, two teams heading in different directions
January 25, 2008Cabrera and Gutierrez saved my tv tonight
January 25, 2008Unbelievable. I can’t even tell you how mad I am at Eric Wedge right now. Lead-off double in the ninth inning in a tie game. Peralta up to bat, and Wedge doesn’t order the bunt! Of course it is pointed out by the dynamic announcing duo that Wedge likes to give his hitters freedom to get men over how they feel comfortable. So Peralta swings at the first pitch at his shoestrings. The second pitch is right below the knees for a called strike. The end result- a strikeout, what else. How can you not bunt in that situation? The first pitch was so low that you wouldn’t have even offered a bunt at it. I know that Peralta botched a sac bunt chance in Minnesota…I saw that one too. My point is shouldn’t your starting shortstop be able to lay down a freaking bunt?!? Isn’t that a fundamental part of the game? Oh, I forgot, Wedge doesn’t coach fundamentals. The Tigers were ripe for the picking in this game. In the eighth we had a chance to take the lead, but Victor strikes out and Hafner flies out. Of course Hafner is practically hopping out of the box after every swing because his knee is not healthy enough to play, but there he is batting.
Enter Joe Blowngameowski. All he does is walk the lead-off hitter, then give up three straight hits, including a bomb to Ordonez. Ball game. Yeah, he ended up pulling Borowski in the inning. Joe is 1-4 in non-save situations. His era was over nine in these situations before giving up 4 runs in his 1/3 inning pitched. We don’t play sound baseball. We don’t play good defense. Our approach to at-bats has gotten progressively worse as the year has gone on. Jhonny Peralta would strike out in church league softball. Hafner probably should be on the DL, and why he continues to lift our heavy hitters for pinch runners I don’t get. Tonight it was Garko, who was lifted in the seventh inning!!! Gomez remained on second the rest of the inning.
Tell me the truth, after Granderson’s catch in the eighth, you knew the game was over too. When Peralta struck out in the ninth you could feel in your bones what was coming couldn’t you? The crowd did their job. They were outstanding in getting C.C. pumped up to end the Tigers’ seventh. Wedge was out-managed. The team was out-executed. I’m sick.
So after the game Wedge throws the team under the bus-
“Afterward, Cleveland manager Eric Wedge blasted his team.”These guys have to dig deep,” he said. “We’re going to find how tough they are. It’s easy to be tough when you’re winning. When you’re going good, you’re going to get cheered. When you’re going bad, you’re going to get booed.”That’s where toughness comes in. We’ve got a couple of people who might be feeling sorry for themselves. I don’t like that.”Wedge singled out Granderson’s catch as an example of what the Indians need to be doing more of.”They made the play,” he said. “In these types of games at this time of year, you make the plays, you win.”-(from the Associated Press)
Are you kidding me?!?! You have the gall to blame the team for that crap?!? How about you Eric? How about the fact that you didn’t order the bunt? How about you didn’t have enough confidence that Peralta could get a bunt down, but you wouldn’t pinch hit for him! You pulled Lofton, you pulled Garko, but you wouldn’t pull Peralta who is a disaster in these situations. No plate discipline at all. Thanks Wedge. Once again you must have a vacation already planned for the beginning of October that you don’t want interrupted.
2 Comments
Couldn’t agree with you more. Pull Garko after he has one of only two solid hits in the game ( the other Grady’s hr ), but leave the idiot shortstop in the game. Peralta hasn’t had a clutch hit in two months, strikes out 8 of last 15, and goes into a trance whenever he does reach base; but he stays in to bat. Hell, he’s so dumb he can’t even spell his own name. As for Borowski, even the announcers know he sucks in non-save situations, but Wedge hands him the ball anyways.
This is one hell of a way to convince CC to re-up, and Fausto probably can’t wait to get out by now.
Great minds think alike. All Cleveland coaches/managers have the same deer-in-the-headlights look when it comes to the end of the game. This idiot couldn’t coach himself out of a paper bag. I’m thrilled we gave him an extension.
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