Today continues the legacy of Bob Geren’s incompetency as the Oakland Athletics manager. How he got invited to be one of the managers in the all-star game by Joe Girardi is beyond me.
There’s no manager in baseball as clueless as Geren is! Today’s game is just another fine example of just how clueless Geren is on the bench.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Oakland A’s took a 2-1 lead against the Chicago Cubs. Dallas Braden had his groove going and the Cubs were off balance against him. After throwing 27 pitches in the first inning Braden settled down.
He was only at 83 pitches after six innings. There’s was no reason at the time to take Braden out of the game; he wasn’t struggling and he wasn’t being hit hard. Braden probably could have gone two more innings, allowing for Andrew Bailey to get a save opportunity.
Unfortunately for Bailey, he had the opportunity for a save, but was put in a situation where he was going to most likely fail. Michael Wuertz got one out in the eighth inning, but gave up back to back singles before walking the next batter.
This left the bases loaded for Bailey to come into the game. Bailey gave up a sacrifice fly, but was able to get out of the inning with only one run scoring. That tied the game up at 2-2.
Instead of leaving Bailey in the game, another pinch hitter was used, leaving Jerry Blevins to pitch the bottom of the ninth. What manager brings in a reliever who’s specialty is getting left handed hitters out, to face right handed hitting batters?
Secondly, what manager in the ninth inning intentionally walks a hitter to put runners at first and second with one out? The answer is no competent manager would do that, because you don’t put runners on with the game on the line.
Blevins ended up walking Ryan Theriot to load the bases. This meant the infield was in and the outfield was in as well. Kosuke Fukodome came up and hit a hard grounder through the infield which won the game.
If the A’s had been playing their defensive normally, that’s a double play ball. It wasn’t like the A’s needed to bring the infield in either, because Geovany Soto was the runner at third base.
Again another game, another loss at the hands of Bob Geren. When is Geren going to be shown the door? It’s obvious that Geren does not have what it takes to field a winning team!
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