Matt HarveyDuring last night’s World Series Game 5 broadcast, there was some criticism of Mets manager Terry Collins’s decision to leave Matt Harvey in the game to pitch not only to the first batter of the ninth inning but the next one as well. Second guessing is part of the fun of baseball, but I remember an almost identical circumstance last year when the opposite decision was made with a virtually identical result. In the ninth inning of Game 2 of the NLDS between the San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals, Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann had gotten the first two outs, then walked Giants second baseman Joe Panik. Matt Williams, manager of the Nats, immediately removed Zimmermann and put in his closer, Drew Storen. Storen immediately gave up two hits to tie the game, which the Nats eventually lost in 18 innings. Williams was excoriated in the media for his decision, and it may well have been on the minds of his employers when they dismissed him recently. This is not to say that either Collins or Williams were wrong in their decisions. In such high-leverage situations, any choice can be a roll of the dice.
I also remember my assessment of the 2014 Kansas City Royals: a team that believed that failure was something that happened to the other guy. This also applies to the 2015 Royals, only more so, as we have seen. According to Giants manager Bruce Bochy, he and catcher Buster Posey looked at each other on the field after winning Game 7 last year and said, in disbelief, “How did this happen?” I agree. How in the world did the Giants beat these guys?
