The manager is never going to be right 100% of the time. Cole could have given up a ton of runs. We'll never know :/
Hats off to Greinke for giving it everything he had. Pitched his heart out, was clearly bummed but it was not his fault at all. Not his fault that Hinch turned Harris into Morrow 2.0 by overusing him. Not his fault the Astros stranded nearly every baserunner the whole game. Can't wait for the next two seasons of his. Let's go get him his much-deserved ring, and cap off his HoF career. Get him into the 250 win club and 3000 K club with an H on his hat. #WorthTheTrade
But if Cole gives up then so be it. Give the ball to your best pitcher and let him win it or lose it. That's what makes a champion a champion. This could have been Cole. This was his opportunity to win or lose.
This hurts man Hinch ****ed this up. He was so good during the Alcs but he trusted his bullpen too much. Trust your starters in a game 7.
You also dont strand that many RISP. Two runs was never going to be enough. I may have even left Greinke in for one more inning. He was in control so I would not have panicked and pulled him out.
Baseball with things like Earned Runs, Inherited Runners and etc. makes the chain of causality very clear and also allows for the greatest second guessing. It's easy to say that we pulled Greinke with a lead and Harris came in and gave it up. That is the what happened but we have no way of knowing what happens if Greinke stays. Maybe he gives up another homerun anyway. We would then be crucifying Hinch for leaving him. Maybe he brings in Cole and because Cole has never come in mid inning he gives up a homerun too. There's just no telling what would happen. Baseball is a game of tendencies and probabilities. You had a Cy Young winning pitcher on the mound who had up to that point pitched great but was in the 7th inning having given up an HR and a walk back to back.. There is a possible Cy Young winning pitcher in the bullpen but who hasn't pitched relief in his pro career and didn't pitch that great last time he faced this team at home. You have a trusted reliever ready to go who other than the previous night has been lights out.. It's a one run game in game 7 of the WS. It's a tough choice and the choice Hinch made was as good of a choice as any of those three and one that I don't think most MLB managers would disagree with.
In game 7 of the 2003 ALCS Red Sox Manager Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in to pitch the 8th. Martinez had pitched great and the Sox had a 5-2 lead. Martinez gives up 3 runs in the 8th, the Sox ultimately lose 6-5 and Little is fired. Staying with a pitcher too long can be fatal but that is what makes baseball such a nervewracking game.
He is gone 100% chance. If he came in to pitch and somehow they won, 5% chance. By the way. Great 3 season run but it over now. Once Cole leaves you have Mr. Cy who cannot win anything in WS so even getting back would mean another lost. Its OK. Team won one but this absolutely show how hard it is to win one. You can be heavy favorites and still lose. Just happened before our eyes.
Same year, Dusty Baker leaving Mark Prior in Game 6 of the ALCS. (though IIRC their pitch counts were approaching 120+ in both games) Inversely, Dusty Baker pulling out Russ Ortiz early in the 7th inning in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. Both moves Dusty Baker was highly criticized for. While I'm on the side that Greinke should have pitched the rest of the inning, Hinch probably has his own reasoning (pitch count, probably saw something he didn't like, etc). It just sucks to be on the receiving end this time.
dudes are complaining about about a pitching move and it didn't even matter. the bats went back to being terrible at home and situational hitting was horrible once again. there wasn't even any base traffic after the change.
Let's see. What inning was cole most vulnerable in all his starts? And people here are losing their minds over not bringing in Cole for what would have been his first inning? How well did it go when we used Verlander in relief in 2017? Verlander on short rest? Starting pitchers are a different breed. Sure, some can flex into relief. Morton did. madbum famously did. Others have. But to sit here and say it was lunacy not to bring in cole, or to act like Cole would have been a magic bullet totally ignores the fact that he's never pitched in relief and that he is not lights out in the first inning of his starts. Nats won. They got the big hits. We didn't. It's as simple as that.
When we went down 0-2 I was shocked. When we came back 3-2 I was even more shocked. Timely hitting was the story of this WS. And we didn't have it. Go back and watch the 2017 WS, and then watch this WS. 2017 Astros = 2019 Nats.
Hinch putting in Harris was like Yankees putting in Green so many times sooner or later they would catch up with him.
Remember Nats Max pitched relief in a playoff game and that is all you need to know about the playoffs. You do whatever it takes, I think we shortsighted on Cole. I think Hinch made the decision on the future of the Stros because all those relievers are back next year and guess who is 100% ain't coming back.