Nightmare game produces nightmare results for Giants

Published by on May 31, 2011 | 7 Responses

Alternate title: please stop letting Javier Lopez face right-handed batters.

I feel like I’ve been beating the ‘don’t let Lopez pitch to RHBs’ drum for awhile now, but once again, Bruce Bochy left Javier Lopez in to face too many righties. The result was this…

J Lopez relieved S Romo.
L Berkman grounded out to third.
A Craig doubled to right center, A Pujols scored.
C Rasmus grounded out to second, A Craig to third.
Y Molina intentionally walked.
S Schumaker reached on infield single to second, A Craig scored, Y Molina to second.

I get using Lopez to turn around Berkamn. Lance Berkman, a switch-hitter, is a career .260/.364 /.417 batter against southpaws. Compare that to his career line against RHP (.309 /.424/.589) and it’s a totally defensible move. However, Lopez is known, colloquially, as a LOOGY — or Lefty One Out Guy. What that means is that he’s often strategically (keyword) used to acquire a single out against a left-handed batter. However, after the Berkman at-bat Bochy should have had a right-hander — preferably Brian Wilson — ready to go. Instead, Bochy chose to let Lopez face Allen Craig with a runner already on second base from Romo’s brief outing.

Allen Craig is hitting .330/.400/.500 on the season. He’s done most of his damage against LHP, batting .300/.344/.600 against them. Craig ended up smoking a double into right-center off of Lopez to score the tying run. Eventually, the Cardinals would take the lead on Skip Schumakers rolling single through the right-side of the infield — Sanchez would knock down the ball on the outfield grass, making an off-target throw to first — but you could really feel the tide turning after Craig’s double.

Perplexing bullpen management by Bochy in this one. His use of Lopez against RHBs remains one of the more confounding topics this season.

—

UPDATE: Here’s a graph of Lopez’s usage versus RHBs over his career.

I split up 2010 since he was with the Pirates and the Giants. In this context, Bochy’s use of Lopez doesn’t look too crazy — Pittsburgh was using him 60.8% of the time against RHBs in 2010 which is absurd. However, I was pretty amazed at Lopez’s career time spent pitching against RHBs. Since 2003, he’s had four seasons in which he faced RHBs at least 50% of the time. I would have expected a much larger slant towards LHBs.

The Giants used him really well in 2010 when they had him for the stretch drive. I’d prefer they scale him back to 2010 levels when facing RHBs.

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Ben
Ben

I agree with using Lopez less often against Righties, but you're wrong about this occassion. You contradicted yourself about Craig's stats - he's done most of his damage against RHP (.345/.426/.488 vs. .300/.344/.600 against LHP). Yes, he's shown more power against LHP, but that's a sample size fluke. His career numbers are much better against RHP than LHP.

R.I.O
R.I.O

Also, with an open base, why not have Romo walk Pujols? I understand his batting average is low this year, but he should have gotten the Bonds treatment there.

@flavius217
@flavius217

Exactly. Managers are afraid of the scrutiny if they buck the convention of "dudes need to have roles." It's just easier for them to follow the rote 7th Inning Guy, 8th Inning Guy, Quote-Unquote Closer stuff than to actually do something bold and put their head in the noose.

ian
ian

Now I see what you're proposing. (Flavius and I were discussing this earlier on twitter, but the 140-character limit makes it difficult to get one's point across. Starting the 8th with Wilson on the mound probably would've been a solid move, but there's almost no chance of that happening. All relievers must have a role, and Wilson is the closer! (sarcasm) But Romo to start the 8th is probably the second-bast thing. Dude has been lights-out all year, and he just happened to give up a flukey double to Jon Jay and then a clean double to Pujols. (Regression is a bitch, Sergio, especially when it happens all in 1 inning.) If neither of those things happen, then we're probably not having this conversation, but they did, and we are. As I've said, I think I get what Bochy was going for, and tonight it just didn't work out. But yeah, in general, it seems to me that the 1st manager who has the balls to say "screw the save rule, and screw the idea of a closer" will have a huge competitive advantage. He'll be able to throw his relievers out there based on talent and leverage, and not arbitrary roles. But that manager ain't gonna be Bruce Bochy.

Chris Quick
Chris Quick

I think I pretty much agree with 100% of this.

@flavius217
@flavius217

To start the 8th, I was thinking to myself, "Self, with Jay-Pujols-Berkman coming up, might Wilson be the best option?" As a Cardinals fan, I've lived and died (mostly died) with stupid La Russa's stupid bullpen management, so I thought it curious that Bochy didn't go to Wilson as the leverage got higher and higher during the 8th.

ian
ian

I assume Bochy was hoping J-Lo could get Craig so he'd be able to leave him (Lopez) in to face Rasmus. If he didn't get Craig, then the Giants would still have the lefty in to face Schumacher. It seems like a reasonable gamble to me, especially if the other option is to bring in Wilson for a 5-out save. (I can't recall if/when Wilson was getting loose, or who else was up in the 'pen and when.) If it woulda worked out, Bochy woulda looked smart, but it didn't. I kinda just had a feeling 3 runs wasn't gonna be enough to get it done -- that offense is just too potent, even with half a Holliday.