Not a bad start for Lyles at all... had that one flukey inning where balls found some holes, but he's been very precise and downright "confident" since.
Alright Hunter... chance for you to be the bonafied #1 tradeable OF this season... (Bad AB so far...) Edit: Struck him out on 3 pitches... ouch.
Then who saves the game for you when you get the lead in extra innings? Lopez was already in the game and he had only thrown one inning... you burn him, then you burn Melancon just to get to extra innings... then you have basically zero decent arms left to keep the game going/save a possible lead. Also the pitchers spot was coming up in the top of the 10th. Which means whatever pitcher you were putting in, it was only going to be for that inning... unless you double switched prior to that, then you have burned another position player in a potential extra inning game.
While that makes sense. Lopez PC was up over 30. We were lucky he didnt tire and let a guy tee him up. Yes. it worked out. But riding a guy too long has been a recent trend that has backfired more times than not.
Most of these bullpen guys should be able to throw 30+ pitches over 2 innings. Or, at the very least, you still save Melancon for the save situation and put in Carpenter (the guy who's about to give up the game right here).
