Taking one for the team?

Hargrove screwed the pooch yesterday. I put this one squarely on him.

Shiggy comes in, bottom of 4. Looks terrible. Loads the bases on an error, a single and a walk, but gets Greg Zaun to pop out to end the inning. So he's clearly "shaky Shiggy."

In the Top of the 5th, they get one run back on the homer from Winn and they are only down 6-4. Its a two run game!

So Grover runs Shiggy back out in the bottom of the fifth. He's thrown 16 pitches, 8 balls, 5 in play, 3 other strikes. Not good, but okay maybe he settles down. And for two batters it looks okay. He goes full on Rios, then gets him looking. Hinske flies out on the first pitch. Then the deluge. Double, sharp single, Double, Double, single, 4 runs scored.

The worst part, according to Rizzs on the radio, is that Grover never got anyone else up. He's got a twelve man pitching staff, but he's leaving Shiggy out there to take the beating. In the old days, you know when you only had 9 or ten pitchers, in the early nineties? In the old days, sometimes a pitcher would be left in to get lit up because the game was out of hand and the bullpen was tired.

But we're carrying 12 fricking pitchers! There is no way he should be giving up on that game! At Skydome? Puh-lease! As it turns out the M's do come back and get within one run before losing by only two! If Hargrove had pulled Shiggy after only two runs it might have been a totally different game. I know its crazy to play the what if game in the 5th inning, but even at the time I was yelling (in my car, by myself mind you), "You're giving up this game? In the 5th? Oh if only we had a 13th pitcher to relieve Shiggy!"


Arrgggh!