It’s the kind of late-inning decision managers will get second-guessed on within milliseconds of making it. When is the right time to take out the starting pitcher?
Reds manager Dusty Baker already knew the questions would flow like Niagara Falls following Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Pirates. The circumstances were right out of the textbook of a second-guessing 101 class.
Baker’s starting pitcher, Homer Bailey, had a brilliant day of pitching and a career-high 12 strikeouts. But as Bailey crossed the 100-pitch mark in a 1-1 game on a hot and muggy afternoon, Baker stuck with his right-hander as Pittsburgh threatened.
“I wanted to give Homer a chance to win the game,” Baker said. “People don’t understand, but it doesn’t matter to me because I’m going to do what I think is right for my team and right for him. It’s tough to go out there and get a no-decision or a loss the way he’s throwing the ball. I can see a level of frustration on his face down there that we haven’t gotten him any runs.”
A loser in his last two starts since his July 2 no-hitter vs. the Giants, Bailey had plenty of octane in the arm in his first post-All Star break outing after a nine-day break. His fastball often crossed 95 mph, including a 99-mph high heater that struck out Michael McKenry to end the top of the fourth.
Bailey’s only early blemish came in the second inning with one out when Garrett Jones slugged a first-pitch breaking ball into the right-field seats for a 418-foot solo homer. A McKenry single followed, but Bailey went on to retire 15 of his next 17 batters.
With the game tied at 1-1 in the seventh, fortunes changed for Bailey when McKenry worked through a 10-pitch at-bat and hit a one-out double to the wall in left-center field. At that point, reliever J.J. Hoover was warming up in the bullpen.
“That last inning, McKenry had just a great at-bat,” Bailey said. “He fouled off a 2-2 slider that I couldn’t have thrown any better.”
Jordy Mercer ended Pittsburgh’s 0-for-29 drought with runners in scoring position with a rolling single up the middle that scored the go-ahead run. Clint Barmes added an soft rolling infield single to the shortstop. Zack Cozart’s hurried throw was in the dirt, but Barmes would have been safe anyway.
Bailey was at 120 pitches as pinch-hitter Jose Tabata stepped in, but he said he didn’t feel too fatigued.
“Not as much tired as I was frustrated a little bit,” Bailey said. “The ground balls that were hit were just slow enough. If the one to Cozart was hit a little faster, he gets him at first. Little stuff like that.”
Bailey’s next pitch was his final one. A 95-mph fastball was scorched for a lined single just over Brandon Phillips’ glove for an RBI single by Tabata and a 3-1 Pirates’ lead.
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