Joe Maddon's colossal bullpen mistake costs Cubs in Game 2
Supposedly forward-thinking Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon picked one heck of a time to be traditional. With Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on the line, Maddon made a decision that may haunt Cub fans long past Sunday night’s contest.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run on second base, Maddon emerged from the dugout ready to make his move. He signaled for a right-hander, and any rational fan expected All-Star closer Wade Davis to come strolling out of the bullpen looking to send this game into extras.
Instead, they were greeted by 38-year-old John Lackey.
Eight pitches later, the game was over. Lackey walked Chris Taylor, and then gave up a dramatic walk-off three-run homer to Justin Turner to lose the game 4-1. Maddon could only frown in the dugout as he watched the Cubs drop to 0-2 in the series.
If it feels like we’re treading on familiar ground, we are. Last season, Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter was ripped to shreds after letting Zach Britton rot in his bullpen while Ubaldo Jimenez blew the American League wild-card game. In 2013, it was Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez patiently waiting to employ Craig Kimbrel for a save situation that would never come in the National League Division Series.
This time, it was supposed to be different. The manager in question wasn’t an old school guy like Showalter or Gonzalez. It was the outside-the-box, numbers-oriented Maddon. This is the same guy who has played a pitcher in the outfield just so he could bring him back into a game. The same guy who used Anthony Rizzo at second base so he could utilize an optimal defensive alignment.
With the game — and potentially the season — at risk, Maddon deferred to tradition. He couldn’t bring in Davis now. He needed to save his closer for a possible save situation that would never come.
Sabermetricians and advanced stat nerds are often credited with the concept that the closer doesn’t always have to be used in save situations. At this point, we might as well credit common sense. Your best pitcher should be used in situations when he’s needed most. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the winning run on second and postseason destroyer Justin Turner coming to the plate, that definitely qualifies.
Davis, the All-Star closer with a 2.30 ERA, was Maddon’s best possible option. That cannot be argued unless the 32-year-old was unavailable after throwing a season-high 44 pitches in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals.
After the game, Maddon confirmed that was not the case. He didn’t go to Davis because he was holding him for the save.
“I really just needed him for the save tonight,” Maddon said. “He had limited pitches. It was one inning only, and in these circumstances you don’t get him up and then don’t get him in. So if we had caught the lead, he would have pitched. That’s it.”
It’s not hyperbole to say that, by going to Lackey, Maddon made the worst possible decision. He didn’t turn to his other relievers, Hector Rondon or Mike Montgomery. He instead went to Lackey, the pitcher with both the highest ERA (4.59) and home run rate (1.90) on his NLCS roster. Lackey, who over his 15-year career has only made two appearances as a reliever. Lackey, who made his third-ever relief appearance Saturday night, and was pitching on zero days rest for the first time in his career. That’s who Maddon sent out to the mound with the game on the line.
Maddon attempted to explain the decision after the game, saying he liked Lackey’s chances against Taylor, and that he planned to use him for multiple innings. That wasn’t the case with Davis, who would have been limited to just one frame.
Maddon also made sure to point out that the offense only scored one run during the contest.
“We scored one run today,” he said. “That’s the issue. We’ve scored 11 runs in six games during the playoffs.”
And, sure, that’s true. The Cubs offense has been struggling. But it’s also true that one run was enough to keep his team in the game Sunday night. Mentioning the struggling offense doesn’t excuse going to Lackey over Davis. That statement reeks of Maddon trying to deflect the blame after mismanaging a close game.
Maddon may be forced to reflection on the decision for the entire offseason. While coming back from an 0-2 deficit in a seven-game series is possible, it’s not likely. It’s only happened 13 times in Major League Baseball history. The last of which came in 2004, when the Boston Red Sox came back from 0-3 to topple the New York Yankees.
In the postseason, it only takes one awful call to sink a team’s chances. Maddon uncharacteristically clung to tradition, and it may have cost the Cubs a shot at another World Series championship.
Either that, or he’s just trying to make the team’s comeback in the series more dramatic. Maddon is known for being quirky, but it’s tough to see how this could be part of his master plan.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
