If BRANTLEY starts tonight at DH, do we get ALVAREZ in LF? Or do we give him a day off? I'd love to see who they put in CF with all the regular starters in the lineup. 2B Altuve DH Brantley* 3B Bregman LF Alvarez* 1B Gurriel RF Tucker* SS Correa CF Siri/Meyers/McCormick C Maldenado/Castro* Bench Diaz Gonzales Who gets assigned?
I think it's fair to question leaving Maton in for the ninth, but with the three batter rule the pitchers in the pen need to be able to pitch to more than one batter. I know this didn't apply in this specific case, but does in general. Pressly and Stanek cannot pitch in every single high leverage situation (and sometimes they make mistakes). If people are saying TB was just testing what they could get out of their pen ahead of the playoffs, the same logic should apply to the Astros. The balance between giving Garcia, Taylor, Raley, and Maton some work comparable to what they might see in the playoffs while keeping the game close was OK overall. I know you got to get to the 10th, but starting with a man on second is higher leverage than starting a clean inning and Tampa was leading off the 9th with their 5-6-7 hitters, not the 2-3-4.
That's why I said Dusty was probably doing something similar. Unfortunately Maton did not pass the test. While one-batter relievers may be considered a waste of a relief pitcher, Maton got the out they needed by retiring their best overall power hitter (Cruz), and it ended the inning. Some can also question how seasoned relievers are at sitting in the dugout and going out for another inning. Most won't have a lot of experience with that (used to just coming out of the bullpen for their appearance). While you can't throw the same guys every single day... unless they have some undisclosed injury, Stanek/Pressly should have been available with the off day Monday. They're about to get several off days coming up here. Moreso if they can win 2 more games and guarantee the #2 seed.
Even though the HPU had been pretty consistent high in the zone I thought for sure he would give him a couple of those high FBs to send everyone home but he stayed true to calling it a ball.
I don't think we're disagreeing about anything. There were other posts saying TB was experimenting a bit, so I responding to yours saying I think your take was right. I don't think Maton in the 9th was a particularly good call, but I also don't think it was all that terrible either. I added some reasons why I don't think it was that bad, but it's certainly a debatable call.
Stanek is also awful against LHB and there were two LHB due up in the 9th. I think Dusty's decision to bring out Maton again in the 9th was fine.
