Manager Gary Cohen has seen a lot of bad baseball this year, but none as bad as Diamondbacks manager Tori Lovullo’s bottom-of-the-ninth call on Monday.
The Diamondbacks led 4-3 with two outs in the ninth inning, but the Mets had runners on the corners and speedy pinch runner Tim Locastro at first base.
Sound baseball strategy is to intentionally not allow game-tying or game-winning hits into scoring position, and the Diamondbacks did just that.
Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker played behind Locastro, allowing an easy second steal and putting two runners in scoring position for Brandon Nimmo.
“They’re going to play behind him. He’s the winning run. What are they doing? What are they doing? They’re going to play behind him. That’s the winning run. Are you kidding me?” Cohen said. “What are they thinking? How are they going to allow a game-winning second base steal? This is the most laborious business decision I’ve seen all year. It’s unrealistic.”
As all of this was going on, Keith Hernandez said, Oh, I see. oh my god. Oh amazing. “
Lovullo didn’t pay for the “gut-wrenching” decision by former Mets reliever Paul Swald to eject Nimmo with a fly to center field, securing a 4-3 victory.
Lovullo probably believed that the pitcher/catcher combination of Sewald and Jose Herrera didn’t have much of a chance of defeating the speedy Locastro, so he decided to play defense the way he and his staff preferred in order to get the dangerous Nimmo at bat. The priority was probably to adjust the
Still, this is a pretty bold strategy for a team fighting for postseason survival, as every loss could be the difference between making the postseason or not.
The Diamondbacks enter Wednesday’s game at Citi Field as the third of a four-game set, one game ahead of the Reds and 1.5 games ahead of the Marlins and Giants for the National League’s third wild-card spot.
Arizona State will return to New York on Friday, September 22nd for a three-game set at Yankee Stadium, so their performance in the Big Apple could determine whether they make the playoffs.
