Some stuff to talk about tonight. If it was a regular season game I wouldn't bump the thread but lots of people were wondering if we'd see a different Playoff Farrell or not. I think he made three mistakes, potentially game-changing:
-I would not have PR Berry for Ortiz. I get the reasoning for sure but Papi had been your best hitter (and seems real confident right now, for what that's worth) and the game had the makings of extras. Carp is a decent option but he's no Papi.
-If you do PR Berry for Ortiz then you're going for the run that inning. So why do you leave in Salty and Drew against the LHP? Both are sorry hitters against lefties and you have Bogaerts on the bench.
-In the bottom of the 8th, I'd have brought in Koji instead of Workman. Workman pitched pretty well and the defense let him down but that's very likely to be your highest-leverage situation and you need a K. Maybe this ended up not mattering if Koji didn't have his best stuff, but who knows there.
For the record I didn't mind the Victorino bunt in the 9th. It improved their win expectancy and they pitched to Pedroia anyway. I would have maybe preferred he didn't telegraph it by bring the bat into bunting position as the pitch was thrown -- I feel like he's a good enough bunter to not have to do that, but the outcome was likely the same either way. The best argument against it was Rodney's wildness, but maybe he settles down a bit either way.
-I would not have PR Berry for Ortiz. I get the reasoning for sure but Papi had been your best hitter (and seems real confident right now, for what that's worth) and the game had the makings of extras. Carp is a decent option but he's no Papi.
-If you do PR Berry for Ortiz then you're going for the run that inning. So why do you leave in Salty and Drew against the LHP? Both are sorry hitters against lefties and you have Bogaerts on the bench.
-In the bottom of the 8th, I'd have brought in Koji instead of Workman. Workman pitched pretty well and the defense let him down but that's very likely to be your highest-leverage situation and you need a K. Maybe this ended up not mattering if Koji didn't have his best stuff, but who knows there.
For the record I didn't mind the Victorino bunt in the 9th. It improved their win expectancy and they pitched to Pedroia anyway. I would have maybe preferred he didn't telegraph it by bring the bat into bunting position as the pitch was thrown -- I feel like he's a good enough bunter to not have to do that, but the outcome was likely the same either way. The best argument against it was Rodney's wildness, but maybe he settles down a bit either way.