Lou's Crafty Move a Sign of Life
Piniella works managerial magic in wild ninth, Cubs still lose
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Lou's had a rough first half, but his double-switch Sunday night was momentarily inspiring.
Tony La Russa gets a lot of credit for being a genius. Really, he's just a good manager, one who does most of the things most managers already do. It's riskless, being a modern major league manager; all you have to do is stick to dogma and throw in the occasional productive bit of flair and then, voila, you're a "genius." It's a nice gig.
It's not that La Russa doesn't deserve some of the credit for being smart. His decision to bat his pitchers eighth in front of Albert Pujols is not only smart in theory but it's mathematically viable (all things being equal, the Cardinals would score a fraction of a run more per game batting their pitcher eighth rather than ninth), and isn't theoretically increasing runs on offense, and decreasing them on defense, a manager's job? Still, though, much of the hype surrounding La Russa is the same hype that accompanies many managers with talent in their rosters. Usually, it's the players the manager can thank for his reputation (just ask Joe Torre) and not the other way around.
Lou Piniella is probably among these managers. Lou's good. He's solid. He occasionally does some silly things, but those silly things are only rarely germane to the outcome of the game. He manages in a largely sound and fundamentally boring way; his major defining traits are his "temper" and his "fire," which is why everyone gets all needlessly worried when Lou isn't attacking umps with his metal cleats. But in Sunday's second Cubs-Cards doubleheader game, Lou did something smarter than we've seen in quite a while, and though it didn't lead to a win, it kept the Cubs in the game.
Here's what happened: Angel Guzman started the ninth inning. Two Cardinals got on base via a single and an error. Piniella brought lefty Sean Marshall in to pitch to Nick Stavinoha, whom he (Marshall) walked. Then, Piniella, either through sudden inspiration or the rote creative productivity that comes with extreme repetition, decided to pull Alfonso Soriano, stick Marshall in left, and bring in Aaron Heilman to face the right-handed Brendan Ryan.
Heilman struck Ryan out, and Piniella promptly moved Marshall back to the mound and inserted Reed Johnson into left field. Marshall struck out the next Cardinal hitter before allowing Colby Rasmus to loft a ball into left field ... just before the newly inserted Johnson made a diving catch to end the inning. Yep. Just the way Lou planned it.
It's been a rough first half for Cubs fans, who rightfully expected their expensive ball club to win the NL Central, who instead have been subject to injuries, derision and discombobulation. Heck, even Lou's brief bout with genius couldn't yield the Cubs a win; they split the doubleheader last night, a fitting ending to a mediocre first 86 games (43-43). But as a note to go into the All-Star Break on, Lou's craftiness works. We'll take it. Like Piniella working with his bullpen, such is life as a Cubs fan in 2009: beggars can't be choosers.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations
Posted Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009 - 3:46 PM CST
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