THERE is a Web site called firearthowe.com – and if the Met skipper keeps managing games like he did last night, he is going to create a lot of angry traffic.
Howe made a series of moves that were, at best, dubious and, at worst, helpful to St. Louis winning 1-0. Here are the major offenses:
* In the seventh inning of a scoreless game, Mike Piazza walked and Howe inserted Mike Cameron to run. Removing Piazza’s bat in a tie game for Cameron’s legs meant Cameron’s legs had to be utilized via bunt, hit-and-run or straight steal. But Todd Zeile was swinging away and bounced into a forceout before Jason Phillips hit into a double play. Howe said afterward Zeile got behind in the count too quickly to put on a play. But shouldn’t a play have been put on as the at-bat began?
* Zeile was injured in that bottom of the seventh, forcing Howe to make a series of moves for the eighth. He summoned Ricky Bottalico, but left the reliever in the ninth spot rather than in Zeile’s fifth spot, where he double-switched Danny Garcia, instead. Howe said afterward he was going to pinch hit for the pitcher anyway, but that shuns baseball logic. You always defer the pitcher’s spot as far away as possible. In this situation, Howe could have had the pitcher’s spot eight positions away rather than three.
* In the bottom of the eighth, with St. Louis righty Cal Eldred pitching, Howe had Joe McEwing and that fateful pitcher’s spot due with one out. He could have used Karim Garcia for the weak-hitting McEwing and assured a lefty-righty matchup. But Howe said he was saving Garcia to pinch-hit for Vance Wilson (due up fourth) in the ninth against Jason Isringhausen.
He never anticipated what Cardinal manager Tony La Russa ended up doing, using lefty Steve Kline in the ninth. He also said he needed McEwing to play center, but Garcia could have played center in that emergency, since the Mets were now down a run and scoring was more important than defense.
He only used Shane Spencer to pinch-hit in the pitcher’s spot, creating a righty-righty matchup and citing Spencer had “good numbers” off Eldred. He was 2-for-6, hardly a big enough sample size to make any major determination.
