After blowing off some steam for a bit, I've got a couple thoughts on this game...
1. I don't blame Crawford for the loss in the slightest. It wasn't his fault that Tito pulled Buch out of the game with the lead and less than 100 pitches under his belt, nor was it his fault that "Bombs Away" Bard served up two meatballs for the Feather's best hitters to hammer home the winning runs. Hell without Crawford we wouldn't have even had a lead in the first place. Does it suck he hit into a DP? You betcha... but then again, that was more about bad luck than it was about a poor piece of hitting. Crawford smacked the ball hard right at OCab to start that DP... two feet to the right and it's a run scoring groundout at the worst or a RBI single at best and we're tied up with Lowrie standing on second.
2. Bard is really starting to worry me... seriously, something isn't right with him in the head. He doesn't seem to have that killer mentality that all good closers and most good set up guys have. It's like he's just out there throwing the ball to his buddies in the back yard f***ing around and not focusing on making the one pitch he needs to shut it down. He's got unbelievable stuff and yet more often than not as of late he's been nibbling the corners... f*** that... go after the batter and make them hit your best s***... 99 mph heat. Especially when they've got two strikes.
3. I love Francona. I really do. He's already one of the best managers in franchise history and I don't doubt that he'll get a 3rd if not a 4th ring before his time here is complete. That said, I've had just about enough of him micro-managing pitchers with artificial pitch counts made up on the spot and situational ******** like we saw tonight. There was no reason whatsoever to bring in Bard at that point in the game. None. Buch was under 100 pitches and wasn't laboring... he could have taken care of business just fine IMO. Even still, why not bring in Hill to face Brantley who's a lefty? Inning over if that happens. Instead it's Bard who s*** the bed once again.
4. Even though this loss blows big time, I'm not worried about things too much... we've got Beckett and Lester going the next two and I fully expect to see two solid wins in both of those games. We do that and we've got a road series win and more than likely have at least a share of first place headed out of the Mistake by the Lake.
Oh and Suns is still a douche... that is all