Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad K
Unless you suddenly turn into a bad manager under post season pressure.
Actually I'm not convinced of this but neither will I dismiss it. If someone in authority said that when you have a really good team OOTP visits some misfortune on it, I'd believe it.
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I don't think that I do, but it sure feels like my decisions in the close games are always wrong. Case in point - Game 7 of the most recent ALCS. Tony Saunders throws a no-hitter in Game 6 to even the series 3-3 and force Game 7, and I've got Randy Johnson on the mound who shutout the Twins his last time out. We stake him to an early 3-0 lead but stop scoring after the first, and meanwhile the Twins pelt Randy with a solo homer here, a solo homer there, etc.
Going into the 9th we have a 4-3 lead and Randy's pitch count is decent. He gets the first out and is facing lefty Fred McGriff, who had one of the earlier solo homers but hadn't done anything else. My right-handed closer is ready, but he hasn't been particularly effective in the postseason after being lights out in August and September. So I opt to let Randy face McGriff - boom - game tying solo homer. We fail to score in the bottom of the 9th, some scrub off the Twins bench pinch hits and drives in a run with a single, we get skunked in the 10th and that's that.
Had another one in Game 7 of the World Series a few years back where I admittedly probably left Randy in too long but he'd been throwing a shutout and I couldn't trust my bullpen. His pitch count was high but we had a slim lead in the 9th. I left him face slap-hitting Shawon Dunston who had been on our team a couple of years before, and he broke our hearts with a go-ahead bomb to give the Cardinals the lead and eventual win. We had been up 3-2 in that series with Game 6 and 7 at home. Got blown out in Game 6 and couldn't score a run in Game 7.
So I've definitely had some decisions I've second guessed, but given what I knew in the moment, I don't feel like they were "wrong". I also remember playing in a different save many versions ago where we were down three runs in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 of the World Series and Manny Ramirez hit a walk-off grand slam to win it - so the "comeback code" can definitely go both ways. Just been a long time since I felt like it was on my side!