It's a phrase we've all heard Hawk utter numerous times over our 8 inter-league games. The reasoning behind it, if you could call it reasoning, is that game situation dictates when you pull the pitcher more in the NL than it does in the AL. Somebody should notify Ozzie.
In quite possibly the most obvious situation to pinch hit for the pitcher, with runners on 1st and 3rd, leading by just a run, Ozzie was too busy thinking about the traffic on the drive down to Tijuana after the game. He let Mark Buehrle try to lay down an ill-advised bunt in order to keep him in the game. Buehrle had yet to allow a run, but he was allowing plenty of hits. In a 1-run game, he was flirting with disaster.
- Bunting with your pitcher, who's showing bunt all the way, is retarted when you've got a runner on third base. He has no chance to score on the play, so in effect, you are giving up one opportunity to score the runner from 3rd without a hit. That's just dumb.
- Here's how bad I thought letting Buehrle come to the plate in the 8th was... I would have rather seen Timo Perez. I HATE Timo, but he would have at least grounded into a double play that would have plated Juan Uribe from third.
- Why not pinch hit for Podsednik after Buehrle made his predictable out? Carl Everett leads all of baseball in sacrifice flies. With the number of ground balls that Podsendik hits, and the infield drawn in, chances were that if he even managed to put the ball in play, Uribe would have been out at the plate.
- I can't really blame Ozzie for not pinch running for Konerko in the 9th. In a 1-run game, you want your best defense out there in the ninth. It's just sad that Konerko is our best option out there, and there's no suitable alternative. There was a precedent set though. Earlier this season, Pablo Ozuna took the last inning at first, and did a fine job of it too.
- Though I have to give the Padres starter some credit for a well pitched game, the Sox sure made it easy on him. Stauffer sat down 13 straight Sox because they refused to go the other way with the pitch. Stauffer worked only one side of the plate all night long, and the Sox never made him change that.