Well, Brandon Hyde has now managed four postseason games and his record is an undistinguished 0-4. Clearly, Hyde doesn’t assemble his roster. He doesn’t pitch, hit, run or play defense, either.
So, what does he do? No, I mean it, because I asked him a question in the postgame media scrum. To me, the Orioles’ 1-0 loss came down to one big decision — to pitch to Bobby Witt Jr. or not.
This key situation came about after a one-out walk on a 3-2 pitch to Mikael Garcia in the top of the sixth. Garcia stole second base and moved to third on a groundout by Michael Massey.
So, now there are two outs in the inning. The Orioles hadn’t touched Royals lefty starter Cole Ragans in the first five innings. There are potentially just 13 innings left in the season.
Next up is the right-handed-hitting Witt, who slashed .332/.389/.588 with 211 hits, 32 homers and 109 RBIs this season. Behind him is power lefty bat Vinnie Pasquantino, who hit .262/.315/.446 with 19 homers and 97 RBIs. Pasquantino hadn’t played in a big league game since Aug. 29 due to a broken thumb.
I was 100 percent sure Hyde would walk Witt and pitch to Pasquantino. I’ll always choose the .262 batter over the .332 batter. Not only that, Burnes has been more effective against left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters this year.
I asked Hyde what his thought process was in making the decision to pitch to Witt.
“I’m letting Corbin Burnes, the way he’s throwing the baseball right there, determine who he wants to get,” Hyde said.
So, Hyde didn’t even think perhaps the biggest moment of the game was worthy of a mound visit? The manager didn’t have an opinion?
We all know now how it turned out, a 1-0 loss. Maybe the two teams would still be playing with the score knotted at zero. But I sure would have liked to have had the opportunity to not trail for the final four innings.
The Orioles were damn lucky Ragans only pitched one more inning before he had some left calf cramps.
This three-game series is far fairer than the one-game wild-card setup, but once a team loses Game 1, its back is against the wall. Hyde knows that now, but at the key moment of Game 1, he didn’t manage as if he felt the pressure that was about to be put on him and his team.
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox