CLEVELAND - Much will be made of Ozzie Guillen's decision to keep Jake Peavy in Saturday's game to start the eighth with 104 pitches, and the manager explained his thinking after the eventual 3-2 loss.
"I like the match-ups [to start the inning],'' Guillen said. "That was the plan [to leave Peavy in] no matter what. Because I had [right-handed hitters Austin] Kearns and 'MaTola,' whatever his name is, the first baseman, the fat guy, I don't know what [his] f------ name is - [Matt] LaPorta - on the bench and I didn't want them to face Matt [Thornton]. I thought Peavy was throwing the ball well, and the plan was to get into [switch-hitter Asdrubal] Cabrera, Cabrera is a way better hitter right-handed than lefty, and unfortunately he hit the home run [off Peavy].''
Thornton was ready to come in and face Grady Sizemore, and eventually did with the score then tied. Thornton then gave up the game-losing double to Shin-Soo Choo.
Ozzie explains his decision in the 8th - let the debate begin
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At least Peavey looked like the pitcher the sox paid for, until the 8'th but that isn't his fault. Of course he was facing clevland and the only hitter over 250 is named shinsoo or whatever th f....k... ozzie calls him.
Not that any loss is good but at least it wasn't horrible again.
Let's face it Ozzie is a "gut" feeling and a "players" mgr., not always are the logical choices made.
Peavy certainly made the decision to stay in the game, Thornton got ready and as successful as he has been, Ozzie let Jake decide who was going to face the switch hot-hitting Cabrera.
Thornton may have taken the loss but, that is only because the mgr. cannot. A lack of good sense on a cold day, 100+ pitch count decision to stay with your starter (his longest outing since surgery) just makes very little baseball sense.