Paul Molitor, manager of the Twins, makes the same mistakes all other managers make and that have been pointed out both recently and for a long time on Sportstruths. In last night’s game against the White Sox, three mistakes were made, which probably cost them the game. Molitor allowed a runner to slide into first base (it appears he doesn’t have a policy prohibiting this unless it’s to avoid a tag) and twice pitched to the White Sox’ best and hottest hitter when he didn’t have to, and got burned both times.
After the Twins player slid into first base turning a probable hit into an out, announcer Steve Stone said word for word what I have always said about this. This quote is almost exactly what he said. “For all you young players out there, the only time you slide into first is to avoid a tag. It slows you down. Do you see sprinters sliding to the finish line? No, they run through the tape because you get there faster. And, headfirst sliding puts you at risk of injury to your hand, wrist, and shoulder.” Obvious things that have been said for a long time, but managers still allow this and it still costs teams games.
In the top of the 5th, in a 1-1 game, the Sox had first and third, two outs, and Melky Cabrera up. Cabrera is the Sox’ best and hottest hitter. I’m sure Molitor didn’t want to walk him and put an additional runner in scoring position, but that would have been the smart play since Cabrera is hot and had been robbed of a double earlier in the game. He pitched to Cabrera, he doubled in both runs, and the Sox led 3-1.
In the top of the 9th, Twins leading 5-4, the Sox had a man on second with two outs, and Cabrera up. Do they walk Cabrera? No, and he singles in the tying run and the Sox go on to win 6-5 in 10 innings.
I’ve also written recently about the bad strategy of making outs at third and managers having policies against this. In the previous night’s game, the score was 1-1 in the bottom of the 8th, and a Twin runner on second was out trying to advance to third on a flyout. This was their second bad baserunning play of the game, and could have cost them the game had they lost.