10 consecutive losses for NL

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:03:19 GMT, "A" <aaaac.DeleteThis@hot.net> gave us:

>I don't understand why LaRussa didn't put Albert at the plate instead of
>Pujols (the last man he had on the bench), with the bases loaded instead of
>Aaron Rowland, who isn't half the hitter Albert is. Both are RH hitters, so
>it wasn't any L-R matchup using Rowland.

>Anybody have an answer for that?

Joe Buck noted early in the game that LaRussa had told him that he was
going to hold one hitter back, "just in case" and that player would be
Pujols, purportedly because of his versatility. Buck quoted LaRussa
as saying that he wouldn't hesitate to use Pujols anywhere on the
field. When Buck and McCarver interviewed LaRussa, live in the dugout
during the fourth inning, Tony reiterated that.

Suppose LaRussa sends Albert up to pinch-hit for Rowand and he ties
the game 5-5, and it goes into extra innings. Albert goes into the
game -- where? He might be able to do a lot of things, but center
field isn't one of them. Do you put him in at third, move Freddy
Sanchez to left, and move Soriano over to center?

And the second problem is that the pitcher's spot in the lineup was up
fourth, following Rowand's spot. So if Rodriguez walks Albert to
force in the tying run and then gets Sanchez out, the pitcher is
scheduled to bat third in the 10th inning. THAT's the spot that
LaRussa was holding Albert back for -- he wanted to avoid the
embarassment of having a pitcher have to bat in extra innings of the
All-Star Game. It happened a couple of years back when a pitcher made
the last out of the game, when Norm Charlton struck out to end the
1992 All-Star Game, and I'm sure that Tony didn't want to repeat that
embarassment.

--
Lance

"I believe in the Church of Baseball" Annie Savoy

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