Bruce Bochy > Ron Washington

I say some bad things about Bruce Bochy. Let's get that out of the way. Bochy does double switches, hit 'n' runs where the batter forgets to hit and the runner is slow, intentional walks, pinch ran for Posey with Eli Whiteside (twice!), played a crippled and HGH-riddled Jose Guillen corpse every day, etc.

But the more attention I pay to other managers, the more I see they do just as many things that would drive me straight up a wall if they were the Giants manager. Last night was a perfect example.

First, I thought it was smart of Bochy to pitch Matt Cain in Game 2 and use Jonathan Sanchez in Game 3. I liked that move because Cain is a flyball pitcher who has always been insanely lucky on his BABIP. He gives up a lot of fly balls and a homer-happy park like Arlington would not be the most ideal park for him to pitch in. So he flip-flopped the two of them in the rotation and the results spoke for themselves.

He's been using Nate Schierholtz as a late-inning defensive replacement (taking out Pat Burrell, shifting Cody to LF, and using Nate in RF where his excellent range and cannon arm are exceptional) and as soon as Nate came into the game he made an excellent running catch into the deep Triples Alley. Good move, Bochy.

Those are just a few. Clearly the Series has been managed nicely by Bochy. I whined and moaned about Renteria starting over Panda, and Renteria was the offensive catalyst last night. He also looked pretty decent at SS. So again, I love being wrong in these situations.

But Ron Washington. Wow. He took more flak than necessary for starting Vlad in Game 1. Nobody could have predicted that Jermaine Dye was not actually retired, but was working as Vladimir Guerrero's personal defensive trainer this whole season. We all knew Vlad stunk as a fielder, and Texas knew that too. Nobody could've guessed that he would do THAT in Game 1. And to give Washington a tiny amount of credit, Vlad was their best offensive performer in Game 1. He just looked like a Zombie Carlos Lee in the outfield.

But Game 2. First off I don't understand switching Colby Lewis to Game 3. He's a fly ball pitcher and AT&T is a WAY better park to throw your fly ball pitcher out there. Arlington can be a fly ball pitcher's nightmare. CJ Wilson gets a lot of ground balls, and he looked very good in Game 2. But he could've looked just as good in Game 3 and let Lewis have more advantage in Game 2.

There were other tiny Ron Washington goofs that I noticed, like using Borbon in the 9th when Vlad was RIGHT THERE as a pinch hitter. If he gets on, he could've used Borbon as a pinch runner. But the game was pretty far gone at that point.

But the main problem is his complete mishandling of the 8th inning. O'Day struck out Torres and Sanchez, and then gave up a solid single to Posey. Then he gets pulled for Derek Holland. Holland walks two straight Giants on 8 fastballs. At that point most managers would run out screaming to get the guy out of there. But he didn't.

That late in the game, in a game that wasn't totally out of reach but was fast approaching hopeless, when all you need is ONE out...why not bring in your closer?

Neftali Feliz had an amazing 2010, arguably the best relief pitcher in the AL (Matt Thornton, Joakim Soria, and Mariano Rivera being his only competition. He had not pitched in a game since 10/22/10. WHY NOT use your BEST PITCHER to get ONE OUT.

I feel that the "save" statistic has ruined the ways most Major League teams use their closers. A closer - by and large - is often the pitcher purported to be the best reliever on the team. As the best pitcher his role is to come in when the game is on the line, and pitch them to victory. The problem is, the 9th inning is not always the most crucial point in the game. Having your closer come into the 9th inning of a game you're leading 4-1 doesn't seem that important. Any pitcher in baseball can be called on to pitch 1 inning with the goal of "Don't give up more than 2 runs, OK?"

The closer SHOULD be used in the most crucial game situations, and who cares if he gets a save or not. Down 2-0 in the 8th, the Rangers chances of winning the game were not good. But they were a whoooooole lot better than their odds of winning a 9-0 game.

Ron Washington was saving Feliz for a situation that never ended up happening. His best relief pitcher was sitting on the bench while Holland and Lowe threw batting practice. You're limiting yourself seriously by ONLY considering your closer for "The 9th inning of games that we're winning". Bochy threw Brian Wilson - The Giants best relief pitcher - into the 8th inning of Game 6 in the NLCS...and he induced a double play.

The Rangers had little chance of winning when it was 2-0 in the 8th, but Ron Washington helped turn that little chance into zero chance.

On a lighter note, how 'bout them Giants!! 2 more wins!! I heart Matt Cain!!