Gameday Thread, #152: 9/18 vs. Giants

The point is, it's not just a question of pitching enough scoreless innings. It's a question of allowing Micah to finish what he starts, like the great pitchers always do. Why did BoMel allow Webby to stay in the game during the scoreless inning streak? Why did BoMel allow him to throw 3 complete games in a row? Because he earned that right, just as Micah earned the right tonight.

There's a good chance the Dbacks will be in other games over this home stretch when they will have leads, and those would be fine times to let Piggy or DNip or the Petit Unit have a go. But the Dbacks aren't likely to have a starter pitch another 2 hitter. This was Micah's game, and it's not fair to let another guy steal his thunder.

Let's examine your contention about Micah's fatigue. He already had a fresh arm coming in tonight, since he last pitched on the 8th, 10 days ago, and only threw 65 pitches, and before that, he threw 44 on the 3rd. Even including tonight's 101 pitch game, that's still only an average of 70 pitches in his last 3 games. That's VERY low for a starter. Add in the fact that over that time period, most pitchers would have thrown 4 games rather than three, and THEN factor in the fact that he threw a total of 210 pitches over 20 days.

Finally, what the heck kind of damage is another 10 pitches going to do? You really think the ten pitches Micah threw during the 9th are going to have any measurable fatigue effect for his next time out? Come on now. Steve Busby was throwing 200 pitches per game when he tore his shoulder. That's a pretty far cry from 91 or 101, especially when Micah's still averaging lower than that.

This isn't just a BoMel thing, or a Dbacks thing. 99.9% of MLB managers in history leave Micah out there for the 9th, and of those 0.1% that don't? None of them ever won so much as their division.

When Livan Hernandez has given up 8 hits, 4 walks, and 3 runs, in the 6th, and is actually cashed, and everyone in the stadium knows it, and BoMel asks him, "Livan, do you think you can go out for another inning?" And he says, "You're goddamned right I can. It's what I do," THAT'S the manager pushing the player, even though Livan DOES want the ball. However, Livan knows when he's at his limit, and would have given it up willingly.

But when it's Micah Owings, the rookie, and he doesn't have a complete game shutout in his life, and it's the end of the 8th, and he's only thrown 91 pitches, and he's retired the last 10 straight batters, and only allowed 2 hitters and a walk the entire game, you'd BETTER believe that Micah is pushing BoMel to let him go back out. Not only that, but it's generally accepted in baseball that when a guy is having a game like that, you LET him go back out. You're going to have to get a pair of pliers to pry his fingers off the ball, and if you DO that, if you don't give Micah his chance to finish the shutout, there's going to be at least a twinge of disappointment or even resentment from Micah, and certainly some players in that clubhouse are going to agree.

Imagine you have a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and you take breaks every once in awhile. Well, after you've put 888 of the pieces together, you take a break, and come back to find out that someone else finished the puzzle FOR you. Well, that was sure nice of them, wasn't it? After all, ultimately, the goal was to finish the puzzle, right? Plus, now you have more time and less mental fatigue to start on another one.

I don't know about you, dahlian, but I'd be pissed.

There was no reason to pull Micah, and no good manager would have done so.