Force Play

"But it's too late baby, now it's too late...
Though we really did try to make it"- Carole King

Last night's game exposed the A's weakness; if the Duke has to relieve a starter in the 7th inning, you are likely to not win an extra innings game. When the bottom of the 10th inning rolled around, with the game tied, it made a lot of sense to go with guys who could go multiple innings.

Allowing Juan Cruz to start the inning against a righty was a huge advantage for him but he was unable to put Tony Graffinino away. At that point, with Johnny Damon up, I would have gone with lefty Ron Flores who could get you a ground ball with his little breaking piece.

But once Macha left Cruz in to face Damon, I knew then that the options were limited. Thankfully, Damon didn't decide the game although putting Graffinino on third sucked. So now, you have Edgar Renteria, and at that point, you have to bring in someone else; Cruz has already been tagged twice. Even though Renteria is in a huge slump, so has Cruz, and I would trust Renteria to break out of a slump than for Cruz to.

At that point, that very point, is when Macha lost the game. You have to get someone like Keiichi Yabu in there to get you the groundball. Unlike Cruz, Yabu has sinking pitches like his awesome splitter. But Macha left Cruz in and Renteria was hit by a pitch. That AB was very crucial and was WORSE than Yabu hiting Manny Ramirez. Pressure wise, the situation was far less for Cruz and yet he still hit Renteria.

Now you know that Cruz is a major headcase and any crap about him wanting to stay in but "he doesn't make the decisions," is completely false. Cruz forced Macha to make the decision for him by hitting Renteria.

Many have brought out Macha's recent quote on playing about the win; at that point in the game, he's worrying about avoiding the loss. The way the A's bats have been swinging, putting Street in that inning would not have guaranteed him a win. He would have to go at least, at least two innings if the A's scored and that's very optimistic with Kendall, Kotsay, and Chavez,(Kotsay and Chavez: 1-8 combined), due up in the next inning. And if the A's didn't score, you would have to use Cruz, Yabu, Flores, Witasick or Garcia to close out the game in Fenway.

Yabu was the right decision, but it came two batter late.