If folks want a baseball analogy to what happened, I'll give you one. Assuming this was a football decision, this would be the equivalent baseball decision:
It's game 7 of the world series, and your #3 starter who went 15-12, 4.10 ERA, 105 ERA+ is rested and ready to go. A half hour prior to the game, the manager decides to go with the #5 starter who was 9-16, 5.89 ERA and an 82 ERA+, because he liked the matchup better. The #5 then goes on to walk 8 batters in the first inning and give up 4 runs. The Red Sox score 3 in the bottom of the inning. The manager still doesn't make a move, and after 3 innings, the Sox are down 9-7.
Finally, in the top of the fourth, he goes to the bullpen, and he doesn't bring in the rested #3 starter to give him some long innings. He goes with a rookie that happened to some how end up on the playoff roster as the last man, and he gives up 5 runs in 2 innings.
This goes on for the rest of the game. The manager never brings in his stud closer, his top relievers, but rather, he just keeps on trotting out the worst guys on the team, the last guys on the bench, as it were, and the Sox end up losing a heartbreaker by the score of 18-16. The Sox set every offensive record, and still manage to lose.