Post-game pie-in-the-face safety protocol: The 2016 Baltimore Orioles

http://deadspin.com/caleb-joseph-still-doesnt-have-an-rbi-this-season-1786534851

hadn't seen Britton throw a 9th til just now. 15 pitches, all 96-98 mph fastballs, 5 in the dirt. That movement is INSANE -- spitter-like.

How can they win a game like they did last night and lose a game like they did tonight? I don't get it. But of course I get it. This is how baseball is and this is how baseball's always been. But RRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

That throw from Bourn.

blowing hella chunks right now

offense has completely disappeared

this is just like the fucking royals alcs, i don't understand why a fundamentally good team has to just suddenly suck every day and in every aspect at the worst possible time

fuck baseball forever imo

I don't get it? Are the Orioles pissing away the season or hanging on to knock Toronto out in a wild card game? I truly do believe we can beat Toronto.

I could be wrong, but i think they're making the tournament.

Lindbergh on Caleb Joseph and blame for his 0 RBI

https://theringer.com/caleb-joseph-cant-buy-an-rbi-7d045924212a#.fsss6mxzv

feel like ubaldo cycles between horrendous and actually quite good more frequently than most pitchers

@keithlaw

Imagine claiming that you have Cy Young in your bullpen and then not using him in a critical game with the score tied in the 8th inning

jesus that's stupid

imagine claiming to be a smart baseball boy and admonishing a manager for bringing in a reliever with a 1.60 ERA

imagine being an ilxor and posting it in italics like it isn't fucking dumb as hell

His point is why lose the most important game of the season with less than your best pitcher on the mound.

The SP equivalent would be like the Giants playing in the wild card game and deciding to save Bumgarner for another game because Cueto is a really good pitcher too.

if brach hadn't shat the bed no one would be questioning it. I've advocated for bringing in britton in the 8th before but it's ridiculous to expect it when you have other shutdown relievers on hand. like, utterly ridiculous. there is at least one more game to play that would be just as important and then maybe another to break the tie, and then the wild card game. how much do you seriously want to lean on one arm before the playoffs have even started? why would there be any expectation that the tie would've been broken before the 18th inning? brad brach had a 1.60 ERA, are you kidding me?

if they had actually had a lead it would've made more sense, because that presumably would've been it. have him go 2 and make sure the clinch is in. but it was a tie game, could've gone 30 innings for all anyone knows. this is such manufactured bs

and i'm not sure why you'd compare starting pitchers pitching different games with relievers pitching within the same game, but i'm pretty sure the comparison would be "bumgarner should start the WC game and then he should start game 1 of the NLDS because he's the best"

or is this just griping over saving closers for the 9th instead of bringing them in willy nilly? like britton should've pitched the 8th and then brach the 9th? when there's every reason to believe the leverage situation would be just as high, if not higher, in the 9th? when you already have another reliever with a 1.60 ERA?

If you want to look at it another way, the Jays were in almost the exact same situation yesterday. They brought in their second best reliever (Grilli) in the 7th, hoping he'd get them at least a couple of outs in the eighth, but as soon as he got into trouble, Osuna was in for the two inning save. You could argue against that (bottom of the order coming up, what if Boston ties the game and it goes 18 innings, and so on) but fuck it, it's a must win game and you can't lose with less than your best pitcher in the game. I give Gibbons shit for how he handles the bullpen all the time but not last night.

And even if bringing in Brach was the right move, why didn't they bring in Britton sooner? Of course he never came in at all, because being down 5-3 with runners on apparently wasn't high leverage enough.

jason grilli decidedly isn't brad brach

buck left him in for the same reason most managers leave relievers in too long, he thought he'd get the next out. and in a tie game, you generally don't want to burn through your second best reliever before he can get an out. hindsight is great but if you replace brach with britton before the romine single and britton gets through the inning, you still have who knows how many innings left to play and you're down to the second string.

really if anything this just exposes a big flaw, which is the lack of relief pitching that can take down lefties. when your closer is also your only effective LOOGY, any team with decent lefties on the bench or switch hitters, like NYY right now, will pull this off. britton could've come in sooner but there's no guarantee the O's hitters get the lead, and then the same thing happens to brach in the 9th or 10th or 11th.

btw as i didnt see much of that game (or know the O's relievers well) i wasn't endorsing Law's position, tho keeping Britton entirely out of it does seem dubious

Managers change their reliever usage patterns in postseason all the time, as we've seen. Maybe Showalter won't get to.

time to bring out the "all" in "all or nothing"

"No one has been pitching better for us than Ubaldo."

‏@jaysonst
I should clarify that Buck did say that "except for Zach" no one was pitching better than Ubaldo. But I have a feeling that doesn't help

actually not sure you've ever read a post written by someone else