ground control: input error
Yeah, I was undecided and that was supposed to be ? asking the group for an opinion. I held my breath the entire time he was pitching. I understand why he went back out there with a DH coming up, but it cost us the game we had won. I did shit like this when I was coaching too. Sleep is impossibe after a decision blows up.
ETA: In a playoff series my first time around at McCallum, I did something similar in the first game of a playoff series DH. We were up 1-0 in the series and 5-2 in the middle game, but my starter was wild and shaky. I brought in a freshman with a great arm into the game to start the 5th hoping to get 6 outs from him. I did not want to use my main reliever for three innings in case we might have to play another game that day. Like Fiers last night, he could not handle the situation, crumbled under pressure, and we lost the game we had won. We lost the deciding game and the series in extra innings, and one of the best teams I had in my career went out in the first round of the playoffs.
The failure was the player's, of course, but my decision put him in a situation he could not handle, and my decision was the wrong one. I cost my players a crucial game, and obviously my memory of my bad decision is vivid today. The game was in 1975, and I'll remember it as long as I live.
Playing 162 games with elite professional players likely means Hinch does not dwell on things like this too often. I'll bet, though, he gets over the hanging sliders by Gregerson and Giles more quickly than he does choosing Fiers as the multi-inning guy with a four run lead and nine outs to go.
