Jim Tracy made an utterly predictable, yet utterly inexcusable, non-move tonight.
Rockies up, 4-2, top of the 9th, 2 runners on, 2 outs, Ryan Howard coming to the plate.
Howard is coming up as the go-ahead run. But you retire Howard, and the game is over.
Here's Ryan Howard's splits this year:
RHP: .320/.395/.693
LHP: .207/.298/.356
Against righties, he's Albert Pujols. Against lefties, he's a Ranger catcher.
Want more than one season's worth of data? Fine...career splits:
RHP: .308/.409/.662
LHP: .226/.310/.444
Over the course of his career, against lefties, he improves from a Ranger catcher to the Ranger version of Andruw Jones.
Sending a lefty out there to face Howard in a situation like this is a no-brainer. It is the reason you have Joe Biemel in your bullpen...so that you don't let the guy who kills righties and can't hit lefties face a righthander with the game on the line.
And yet...Biemel isn't the closer. Huston Street is. So Jim Tracy let Street face Howard, with the season on the line, and that decision cost the Rockies the game, and the NLDS.
Unbelievable.
I don't want to hear anymore about how the sabermetric types are governed by stats and don't understand how the games are really played.
Jim Tracy allowed a stat -- the save -- to knock his team out of the playoffs. Because it was a save situation, and you don't pull your closer in a save situation to bring in a lefty specialist.
Phillies fans everywhere owe Tracy a huge thank you.