The awkwardness of Rob Manfred while being showered with socially-distant boos. The trophy he once called a “piece of metal” catching the tears of Dodgers players a few feet away. And, of course, that image of Blake Snell helplessly watching Los Angeles cross the plate twice from the Rays’ dugout.
The heart rates were high as October 27 turned into the the 28th. For that, Major League Baseball should get a pat on the back.
After that awkward July 4th weekend, to the Marlins and Cardinals unwisely throwing caution to the wind, and finally the punctation supplied by the Dodgers’ Justin Turner being plucked from the World Series-clinching game in the eighth inning after becoming the game’s first positive COVID-19 test in six weeks, they made it.
We got to rip baseball for all the right reasons for a little while. Thanks baseball.
(Disclaimer: The vitriol might be shifting in a hurry after watching Turner carelessly interact with teammates and others on the field after the Dodgers' 3-1 Game 6 win despite being diagnosed with COVID-19.)
It was about a month ago J.D. Martinez asked reporters how we would look back at the 2020 season. After Tuesday night, it sure felt like any other season. Just like it did when Grady Little left in Pedro Martinez, Dave Roberts pulled Rich Hill against the Red Sox, or when A.J. Hinch took out Zack Greinke in Game 7 a year ago. Put it this way, nobody is going to not lump Kevin Cash with Pete Carroll in the Big Game Bad Decision Hall of Fame.
So, let’s soak in it. Let us get in a good dose of on-field grievance-airing before we return to COVID and economic uncertainty:
Kevin Cash, I like you personally, but …
The moment the Rays bolted out of his dugout to take out Blake Snell in the sixth inning and Tampa Bay leading 1-0 palms went immediately to foreheads.
There has been so much good out of baseball throughout this postseason, but these sort of moments had sporadically left us feeling uneasy. Don’t leave a starter in to face a lineup the third time around. That was the mantra, one which Cash and Co. had ridden to great success all the way to Game 6 of the World Series. And there were some who were already limbering up in an attempt to tie themselves into knots ready to defend the strategy.
But this was wrong on a few levels, even before the ploy backfired.
1. This is the postseason. You get a horse rolling, you don’t reel him in. Snell was that Clydesdale. Cash took him out with out immediately following Austin Barnes’ single, just the second hit allowed by the lefty. He was at 73 pitches. And, as Cody Bellinger told FOX Sports after the Dodgers’ 3-1 win, “I would say it uplifted us.”
2. This was a three-month season and Snell was the one whose tank wasn’t near empty through this postseason run. The relievers, on the other hand, their stuff was backing up on them. Case in point, the guy Cash brought in to face Mookie Betts, Nick Anderson. Anderson had nothing. He allowed a double to Betts, threw a run-scoring wild pitch and then surrendered the game-winning fielder’s choice when Betts raced on home a grounder to first base.
3. Betts, who would seal the deal for the Dodgers in the eighth inning with his second homer of the series, was not only having trouble with Snell, but he was having trouble with all lefties. For the season the former Red Sox hit .200 against without a single home run against southpaws, compared to his .323 average vs. right-handers. And on this night, he had struck out in both of his at-bats against the Rays’ ace.
4. Cash dramatically devalued the human element. This wasn’t about Snell’s .913 OPS against when facing a lineup for the third time. And the fact that the left-hander’s velocity had dropped a bit over the last few innings. This was about a player who you knew had his ‘A’ game and was living up to the moment. That should have been considered. Roberts failed to factor that in when yanking Hill with a 4-0 lead against the Red Sox in 2018, and the same mistake was made here. As one former Red Sox postseason pitcher texted after the move was made, “I immediately switched to Netflix.”
Now, how long will the Snell debate carry the baseball conversation is unknown. By the time 1 a.m. hit Wednesday it was already losing steam in the sporting world’s water cooler cycle thanks to Turner’s bizarre postgame decision. (You didn’t expect MLB to escape without some sort of COVID controversy, did you?)
But baseball still won most of the day … while making us all lose our minds.