Blogfather Rumblings (Might Just Be My Stomach)

Give ‘em the old Uncle Charlie! | Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

I’m not quite ready yet to dissect the A’s off season, as there is still too much actual live baseball in front of us. So instead let’s obsess over an ALCS Game 7 that was never supposed to happen but appears to be coming to a TV near you later today...

- Perhaps the latest turn of events is karma’s way of trying to expose Rob Manfred for the fool he is. Wouldn’t it be so “baseball 2020” if all the wranglings of format and seeding produced a World Series winner whose season winning percentage was .483? Hopefully by the time I go to bed tonight, that’s no longer a possibility.

- Next time you’re about to pop a vein over Bob Melvin’s tactical decision making, remember that you share, with every fan of every team, the belief that your manager makes all the wrong moves.

Now sometimes you’re right — I hear Buck Showalter is finally almost ready to bring Zack Britton into the game, maybe as soon as this Thanksgiving — but excellent managers make moves that range from puzzling to downright ill-advised.

Kevin Cash, who I consider to be a good manager and smart man, is not having the best series so far. In game 5, he had a chance to play for one run in the top of the 9th but let Brandon Lowe swing away, a decision that makes sense if you’re talking about the Lowe who was one of the Rays’ best hitters the past 2 seasons.

But the one that has shown up this post-season just isn’t seeing the ball and could have pushed the go-ahead into scoring position with a sac bunt that would have inched Tampa Bay a single away from the World Series. We hope that is not as close as the Rays get to the WS.

Last night, Cash brought in the infield in with runners at 2B and 3B, one out, and the Rays leading 1-0 in the 5th. I am a critic of Melvin’s over-exuberance around bringing the infield in, as it’s a strategy that should be employed judiciously and not as a default position.

Bringing the infield in is far less risky when there is only a runner at 3B. With runners at 2B and 3B, where any hit through the drawn in infield can score 2 runs, it is usually the wrong call. Exceptions come in the very late innings, not in the 5th inning of a game that can merely be tied on a ground ball with the infield back.

George Springer’s 2-run single began the onslaught of runs that turned a small Rays’ lead into a budding blowout. It also shone a spotlight on a poor decision by a good manager who would probably like to settle for a tie game right about now.

- As for tonight...let’s hope the Charlie Morton who showed up for the one-game winner-take-all showdown in 2019’s Wild Card game brings that A-game to the mound tonight. Morton is a veteran so he shouldn’t need any seasoning, and that’s the only pun I will add to the mix.

Undoubtedly, on display will be the “power arm brigade” that is the Rays’ bullpen and a big part of their blueprint for success. Expect to see 5 IP or so from Morton and 4 IP or so from the “Fairbanks-Castillo-Anderson” group, pretty much regardless of the score. It is unclear whether or not Lance McCullers Jr. will throw 24 consecutive curves. Stay tuned.

Until 2004, no baseball team had ever lost the first 3 games of a post-season series and then won the next 4. The Red Sox, only the second team to force so much as a Game 6, won games 6 and 7, so now the “never” stands as follows: No team has ever won the first 3 games, then lost the next 3 games, but recovered to win game 7. And that’s what the Rays are hoping to do this evening, with just about all of America rooting them on.

Your thoughts?