Good Night for Ross, Bad Night for Manny

Nats pen -- with an assist from Manny -- blows it again

Say you're Manny Acta.  You're a nice enough fellow, but you're also somewhat emblematic of Leo Durocher's old quote, "nice guys finish last."

So you're in the middle of Monday's game.  Your starting staff has been up and down, with only two of your five starters pitching even moderately effectively.  You've got a kid, Ross Detwiler, fresh up from Double-A making his first career start.  It's a bit of an emergency start; you're not really expecting much.

But here you are.  It's the fifth inning, and the kid is pitching well.  He's thrown 84 pitches through five -- which would have been lower had the three errors behind him not forced him to make extra pitches.

He's allowed just four hits -- one of them a long sorta fluky homer on a good pitch -- walked nobody and struck out six.  He had finished the top of the fifth with a perfect inning with two strikeouts.

But he's due up in the bottom of the fifth.

Then there's the pen you're working with.  It's terrible.  It hemorrhages runs.  It can't get anyone out, and it's dog tired from the four games it played in three days over the weekend.  It's clearly the weakest link in the team's chain, and should be avoided as much as possible.

So what do you do in the bottom of that inning?  With a cruising starter, and a shoddy pen?

If you really are Manny Acta, you send up Alex Cintron.

Yes.  Alex Cintron.

That would be the Alex Cintron who's hitting .083.  The one with the terrible career on-base percentage of .313.  The Alex Cintron who can't pitch, so you're forced to turn to the blowpen, hoping they can gut four innings out, when they're already dog tired and sucky.  

Cintron (of course) promptly makes an out.

Four innings, nine runs, eight hits and four walks later, the game was over.  Pittsburgh pounded the pen.  Five tired relievers pitched (again) poorly.  And they'll be just as tired tonight.

Manny doesn't have many tools in that bullpen shed, but given how he manages the ones he does have, why bother?

Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment.  Even though he knows better, he sometimes misses Frank.

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