How Hurdle Lost a Monday Night Game......

by GoRoxGo on Jun 30, 2008 11:24 PM MDT

Yes, the bullpen imploded, especially Fuentes and Vizcaino, to hand us our 8th straight loss while ending San Diego's 8-game losing streak. But, the game wasn't lost in the 9th inning. It was lost by Hurdle in the 6th. Let me explain....

With an 8-3 lead, De La Rosa gave up a homer and two hits. At that point he had allowed 11 hits in the game. You'd think that Hurdle would have someone warming up in the bullpen to start the inning. But Nooooo! Only after the hit after the homer did Clint get Ryan Speier off his duff to start warming up.

Chris Iannetta, sensing that De La Rosa was out of gas and that Speier needed time to warm up, walked to the mound to talk to his pitcher. This is a classic move by a good catcher and is meant to buy time for a reliever to get ready. Iannetta did his job.

Hurdle didn't.

Right after Chris returned to the plate, out pops Clint from the dugout to pull his starting pitcher. I'd say Speier had about 90 seconds from the point of his first warmup toss to being called upon. He clearly wasn't ready. This was followed by a walk and single, and then Clint does it again! He brings in Corpas with minimal warmup time! Manny gave up a couple hits and the lead.

Now, what does a halfway competent manager do in that situation? Any manager worth his salt knows to have a reliever warming up from the START of the 6th inning, not after his starter is showing he's done. Failing that, any competent manager knows he has TWO trips to the mound to work with. After Iannetta's trip to the mound, at which point Speier had been warming up for a minute, a good manager would have sent his pitching coach on a slow walk to the mound, solely for the purpose of buying more time for Speier to get warmed up. Only after the coach returns to the dugout should Clint finally show his face, and go to the mound to get his starter. And that walk should really be a slow one in order to give Speier another couple warmup pitches (when Clint went to the mound, he walked briskly).

These are the subtleties of managing a game effectively, something that is totally foreign to Clint Hurdle. He is among the worst at handling bullpens and getting his guys warm in time to avoid trouble. I've seen this same thing before with Clint on numerous occassions, but this episode was especially egregious since it's a game we HAVE to win, having lost 7 straight and facing another struggling team.

Fuentes was the losing pitcher, but shouldn't have even had to make an appearance in this game. Hurdle contributed greatly to this loss, and I'd give him the loss in this one.

Eat. Drink. Be Merry. But the above FanPost does not necessarily reflect the attitudes, opinions, or views of Purple Row's staff (unless, of course, it's written by the staff [and even then, it still might not]).

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lets Fuentes and Bucky go a week at a time without pitching and Fuentes is more effective with more work. Why is he so quick to pull DLR but lets Cook and Francis stay in and get pounded for 6 or 7 runs. Hurdle has never managed a bullpen effectively. He always gets caught with his pants down in late innings when somone should be warming in case the starter gets in trouble.

by DieHardRox on Jul 1, 2008 9:19 AM MDT reply actions

Hurdle confuses me.

My biggest complaint of the man is that he doesn’t know how to handle a major league pitching staff.

And he’s starting to use the bunt in stupid situations as well.

For example, we had a man on first on 7/3, and Barmes was up with nobody out. What does Hurdle do? He has Barmes sac bunt. You’d think “But wait that puts a man in scoring position with MATT HOLLIDAY at the plate!”

Not a bad thought, but then again….you have 1B open with the best hitter at the plate. And GAtkins is hitting like -.125 with RISP.

Barmes went like 2-4 that night, might as well let him swing.

It was kind of a tough decision, with the possibility of Barmes GIDP with nobody out, but then it also brings up the possibility of Atkins GIDP with 1 out. Tough call, but at least we pulled out the win (Spilborghs = awesome)

It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time It's Tulowitzki!...Tulo-witzki-witzki-witzki ..... rockiesmagicnumber.blogspot.com

by Andrew Martin on Jul 5, 2008 12:50 AM MDT reply actions