Rick Renteria, new Cub manager, has shown in his first game that he is like all other managers in not understanding key situations in games, and making the same mistakes the others do. He very likely cost the Cubs their opening game today. Managers have to manage based on that game’s and that moment’s situations, and his decision showed that he didn’t understand this. The Cubs played the Pirates in Pittsburgh. This was the situation:
- The game was scoreless in the top of the 8th, and neither team was hitting. This meant that one run at that point was huge.
- The Cubs only had 5 hits, and 3 were by one player, so no one else was hitting.
- The Cubs failed in men-in-scoring-position situations a number of times, and were not getting key hits. Why did Renteria think they would all of a sudden start getting key hits? They twice had first and second, no outs, and didn’t score, and had a man in scoring position with one out in the 9th and didn’t score again.
So, the Cubs had a man on second, no outs, in the 8th. They bunted him to third, which meant they were playing for one run. Based on the above and what should have been a strong feeling on Renteria’s part that the Cubs weren’t hitting in the clutch today, he should have squeezed to try to score. He didn’t squeeze, the Cubs didn’t score, and lost 1-0 in 10 innings. Squeezes aren’t automatic, but there was no question the Cubs had a far greater chance of scoring by attempting a squeeze than by not attempting it. If Renteria had a feeling of how the game was going, he would have known this.