I can't let this go. Just can't, it pains me so.
Embree and Timlin were setting up Williamson come playoff time, And that fkn bullpen was lights out...unreal...IIRC their post-season stats up to that game were astounding.
So here you sit, up 5-2, with that bullpen ready to go. Pedro had been hit fairly hard in the 6th and 7th. He was toast, and Little ingnores his bullpen.
After the 7th, Nomar went to Petey and hugged him...he appeared to be all done. The body language exhibited by Pedro and his teammates said so. Then he takes the mound for the eighth and I'm screaming at the TV. I call a couple friends, they're reacting the same way. The network shows the Sox FO group and THEY TOO were shaking their heads and couldn't believe what they were seeing.
The manager makes that call...not the pitcher. No way he should listen to his pitcher in that case when he can see with his own eyes that it's time to go to the 'pen. And this "go with your ace" ******** is a cop out. You go with the winning formula you've developed. That formula was Embree and Timlin, then Williamson. Not Pedro for the 8th and having him throw 110+ pitches.
I've never heard that Little had been instructed to limit Pedro to 100 pitches. Little didn't need to be told, though, because everything that unfolded that evening (and that season for that matter) told him to go to the 'pen. Why he did not is anyone's guess. Is he that stupid? Did his pitching coach convince him to stick with Pedro, even as things fell apart in the 8th? Was it blind loyalty to his player? Was he tired of being f***ed with by the FO and said I'll show them by winning without adhering to their demands? Who knows.
Still, hands down, the worst managerial move I've seen by a Sox manager and the most dissapointing and gut-wrenching game result I've ever experienced in all my years. f*** Grady Little and his apologists.