Granted, it's only a 1 run deficit. However, Wandy should have never been in the game in the first place. Nieve should have been in to start the 5th. He is a former starter and should be counted on to go multiple innings. If he can go two, that gets us to the 7th. Then we can start getting into Lidge, Qualls, Wheeler. In a must win game, as all of the remaining games are, I'm against using mediocre relievers to save the good ones for later innings. Stretch it out as much as possible, have a bullpen ace in reserve for a critical spot late or to close.
Haha... goodbye Wolf... not a bad predicament (tied 2-2, and into their bullpen in the 6th inning). Get Huff ready... get Orlando ready... get Lamb ready... you're about to see the secret weapon Garner has in store for you tonight, Charlie Manuel.
I'm pretty sure that was Wandy's last chance to make a difference... if you look at Garner's managerial patters, he gives guys a chance (like he did for Wandy yesterday), and if they fail... he gets them right back out there as soon as possible, so they don't have any time to think about it. Sometimes it pays off (it has worked with Qualls and Lidge in the past)... but sometimes it backfires. And when you fail twice in a row, you don't normally see many more opportunities till you earn them back (see Gallo, Borkowski, and now Wandy).
The problem is we still have seven games left after tonight, all equally critical. The team is going to have to go to Wandy and Borkowski and the other guys struggling sooner or later. If you put it all on 3 or 4 good guys out of the pen, they are gonna be taxed long before the week is over.
They are playing the Cardinals. Wandy should not be on the Roster....why didn't Albers start tonight anyway? DD
No doubt. But IMO it's different in a tied game. You never know if 3 games down the line we put up 5-6 runs in the first half of the game. Then we don't need to go to the top 4 guys. This is a need situation, in a must win game. Can't save bullets at this point. I want to see lots of Wheeler, Qualls, Lidge, Nieve this week.
This is not the time to be giving people "last chances". I understand what you are saying, I understand Gar doing that, I don't understand doing it at a time like this. Also, Albers has much better stuff than Wandy and should have been available for a few innings tonight.
Don't worry... you will (along with Trever Miller... who may just be the second most consistent reliever on this staff). If you can cheat and sneak a few outs with Wandy, Springer, and Borkowski against the bottom of lineups (especially if you're talking about the 4th and 5th innings of games), it will help you out big-time towards the end of games.
One thing that Garner does well is get the game from the starter to the big guns at the end of the bullpen if he has to have a game. He'll let the starter go a few innings and then try and piecemeal the middle innings until he can get to Qualls/Wheeler/Lidge. Hopefully, he'll continue to do that when the Big 3 isn't pitching.
i dont want to see lidge at all. or wandy for that matter.... too late today for that one, hopefully we won't have to see lidge though.
