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Mariners vs. Yankees |
Mets vs. Cardinals
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Sunday, October 15
NLCS notebook: La Russa answers critics
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Second-guessing isn't Tony La Russa's favorite October sport. But the second-guessers were everywhere he turned after the Cardinals' 10-6 loss to the Mets in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday.
Here is how La Russa responded to those second-guesses:
On why he used Craig Paquette instead of Mark McGwire to pinch-hit with two men on and two out in the eighth inning of a game the Cardinals trailed by four runs: "In the eighth? When we were down by four? I was going to wait until the tying run came to bat. If the tying run came to bat, he was in there."
On whether Darryl Kile's troubles were due to La Russa's decision to start him on three days' rest: "I look at his stuff, and his stuff was good. Every one of those fastballs was out and over the plate. That's not where he was trying to throw it. ... It's interesting. Normally, you pitch every fourth day, you get a better feel for the baseball. You've got better command. You just may not have as much stuff. But Darryl was firing. The balls were just elevated, and they didn't miss them. Usually, that's the kind of stuff when you get a couple of extra days' rest."
On whether his decision to leave Kile in to give up seven runs in two innings -- and then even allowing him to bat for himself in the third, down 7-2 -- indicated he wasn't managing with a seventh-game-of-the-World Series philosophy: "I had that philosophy. But I don't know that we could have gotten nine innings out of the bullpen today. (Britt) Reames was not available. I was not going to pitch him. I was not going to hurt him. I had Matt (Morris) for one. So you start counting innings. (It's one thing when) your starting pitcher gives up four runs in the first. It's the three in the next inning that was tougher to take. But there were two outs when all that crap happened in the second inning. So you send him out for the third, trying to get a few outs. I mean, the attitude was there ... Just we were not that deep in the bullpen tonight."
No Big Mac
The Mets were able to make it through this entire game without an at-bat by McGwire. But they came close.
He was in the on-deck circle with two outs in the sixth inning, after the Cardinals had closed to within 8-6. Ray Lankford was on first base. The pitcher was on deck. Carlos Hernandez was at the plate.
"I felt like if we got one more guy on base," La Russa said, "there wasn't going to be any way to avoid him."
And they almost got that guy on base. Hernandez bounced a ball that appeared as if it might hop through the right side. But first baseman Todd Zeile lurched over, grabbed it and beat Hernandez to the bag.
Asked if he'd noticed the big guy on deck, Zeile said: "Oh, yeah. I saw him come out. I said, 'Let's get this guy out.' "
But Zeile said the play wasn't as tough as it looked, because he was playing off the bag, as Mets first basemen normally do even with a runner on first.
"That helped me get to that ball," he said. "But it really wasn't hit that sharply. It kind of squirted toward the hole. But our grass is pretty high. So I was able to get to it."
As it turned out, McGwire never even made it into the on-deck circle the rest of the night -- for which the Mets were eternally grateful.
"That's the X factor of X factors," said Mets manager Bobby Valentine. "There were a few times when he was standing on deck or lurking in the wings. I'm glad we kept him on the bench."
Duncan gets tossed
Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan exited this game moments after Kile did. After a 3-2 curveball to Timo Perez was called low for ball four by plate ump Dale Scott, an unhappy Duncan came to the mound to hook Kile.
But he waited until Scott walked out to join them before signaling for the bullpen. Then he gave Scott a piece of his mind. Eventually, second-base umpire Steve Rippley joined the conversation. And ultimately, it was Rippley who gave Duncan the boot.
Crew chief Bruce Froemming's account of why Duncan got tossed:
"He was chirping on balls and strikes," Froemming said. "He went to the mound and he waited because he wanted to have a conversation with Dale Scott. Scotty finally went to the mound and said, 'That's enough. Do you want a pitcher?'
"Scott then called in the pitcher and walked to the first-base line. Duncan continued to stare and point at Scott. Rippley told him to stop it and he then went to second and began arguing with Rippley, who ejected him for arguing balls and strikes and continuing to argue."
La Russa, though, insisted that Duncan had simply asked Scott a question, "and Steve thought he was yelling at him. It was simple as that."
Asked if that question had anything to do with balls and strikes, La Russa replied: "I think that's the question he wanted to ask."
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