The manager of the Seattle Mariners made the same mistakes major-league managers continue to make, as they don’t have a feeling for that particular game.
Felix Hernandez, a great pitcher, was pitching for Seattle. Jose Quintana pitched for the Sox. Both were pitching great games, and hits and runs were very hard to come by. Seattle was batting in the top of the 8th inning, and the score was 0-0. To that point in the game, they had 4 hits and the White Sox 1. The lone Sox hit was by their first batter of the game. Getting a run was critical, because the Sox weren’t hitting or scoring, and they weren’t either. The Mariners had first and third, one out, with a lefty batter facing Quintana, who is a lefty. The Mariners have a heavy-lefty lineup, and for some reason, didn’t replace most of the lefties with righties the day before, when Chris Sale pitched a complete game and only gave up one run, which was in the 9th when the game was over because the Sox had a big lead, and in today’s game, when again, the lefties couldn’t hit the lefty. Lefties were 4 for 45 this year against Sale, so it made no sense to have that lineup. I wonder if Seattle wondered why they had scored one meaningless run in two games. Anyway, back to this game. The Mariners had first and third, one out, and a lefty batter facing a lefty pitcher. They hadn’t been hitting or scoring all series. Does the Seattle manager squeeze? Of course not, and the Mariners don’t score. As so often happens, the change of momentum from holding a team after they have a man on third with less than two outs results in that team scoring the next inning. The Sox did score 2 runs, and took a 2-0 lead into the 9th. Seattle scored 2 in the 9th to tie.
In the bottom of the 9th, Seattle made a throwing error on a routine ground ball to allow the leadoff man and potential winning run to reach, then one out later wild-pitched the potential winning run into scoring position. They did hold the Sox, and the game went into extra innings.
In the 10th inning, Seattle had second and third, one out. Again, they hadn’t been scoring all series. Does the manager squeeze? Of course not, and they don’t score.
As I pointed out, runs were very hard to come by, so the game went 14 innings before Seattle finally won 3-2. This is another case of a manager not understanding the situation in that particular game.