This game never stood a chance. Seeing a lineup posted that included putting Aaron Nola on the mound to begin the game on only two days’ rest meant this coaching staff had reached a level of panic they weren’t prepared for.
And that’s where I want to remain for this recap.
Nevermind the score, no one really cares. A loss is a loss and even as I write this with Arizona losing in the bottom of the fifth in San Diego, this game showed that major changes need to happen, either in personnel or in philosophy.
Thanks to a roster construction that borders on inept, the team had no real answers for an offense already in hibernation outside of switching Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner. This solution went 2 for 9. Yes, the minor league season ended a week ago and there really are no good options to help them on whatever taxi squad they have decided to patch together, but they still decided that a hobbled Luis Arraez, with no hope of playing in this game, remained on the active roster.
To me though, that’s not even the worst part.
Jonathan Bowlan last pitched on September 17. He has thrown multiple bullpens in the meantime, yet the team has continually decided that an injured list stint was not necessary. They have insisted that he will be ready for the wild card round even having not faced hitters since that date.
Yet in their most dire day, a day in which a panic had set in – if you are starting Nola on two day’s rest, you are panicking – they opted to pitch a bullpen game down one reliever thanks to Bowlan not being ready to face major league hitters.
To put it in a different light: they have willingly chosen to pitch for over a week, to have a bullpen game on a day where they badly needed a victory, where they were short one reliever.
How does that happen?
How does an organization that is in a complete and total freefall decide to have an active roster with three catchers on it and two guys that can barely walk and say they are ready to fight for a playoff spot? The hubris shown by the players in the lineup has been galling enough, but to seemingly taunt the fans with these rosters decisions that make absolutely no sense is insulting. Obviously we all want them to actually make the playoffs and they might fall ass backwards into doing so if this Arizona score holds and they are somehow able to cobble together runs tomorrow.
Yet with each passing day, each passing decision made by Don Mattingly, who quite frankly should never work again in major league baseball after this week’s debacle of what only he might call “major league managing”, each rolled over ground ball to the second baseman, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that a major shift in how this team is run, from the top of the chain down to the coaching in their Domincan academy.
This is just not getting it done.
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