Idiots Write About Sports

The jury is still out on what kind of manager Ken Macha will be — good, bad, or Bowa-esque — but it’s clear that last night’s 3-1 loss to Anaheim happened largely because Macha managed to lose. And when you’re in a race as tight as the one in the American League West right now, booting away winnable games in the stretch run of the season can come back to haunt you very quickly.

Few newspaper accounts pinned the blame for the loss on Macha; instead, the commonly-accepted culprit seemed to be the the A’s inept offense, which once again wasted a fine outing by Tim Hudson. And when you score only one run on seven hits — including two leadoff doubles which failed to plate a runner — it’s hard to deflect much blame away from the offense.

Still, the A’s went into the eighth inning tied 1-1, with a chance to swipe a victory despite the poor offensive output. But they blew it, thanks largely to what Macha did — or more to the point, what he didn’t do.

Hudson came out to start the eighth, despite a pitch count that already topped 100 pitches. Anticipating that Hudson may be fatiguing — he gave up a 400-foot blast the previous inning on a pitch that Hudson himself described as “right down Broadway” — the A’s had Jim Mecir (gah!) and Chad Bradford (whew!) getting loose in the bullpen. If Hudson got in trouble, the casual fan might conclude, the A’s would go to the ‘pen for help.

Adam Kennedy started the inning with a no-doubt-about-it double to right. I’d call that trouble. Nobody moved in the A’s dugout.

The next batter, Garret Anderson — a hitter of some acclaim — followed with a sharp grounder that eluded a diving Mark Ellis. Single and go-ahead RBI.

Time to pull Hudson? Or at least visit the mound to make sure he’s not gassed? Not in the wine-dark mind of Ken Macha, who apparently had a previous appointment sitting on the bench.

Hudson was able to get Scott Spiezio to ground into a double play. But just when it looked like he might get out of the eighth, Jeff DaVanon ripped another double to right. Hudson intentionally walked Shawn Wooten to set up the force, and now, you had to figure it was long past time to go to the bullpen.

Ken? Ken Macha? A little help out here? No?

Left by his manager to sink or swim, Hudson got rookie Robb Quinlan to hit a bouncing grounder back up the middle — which the pitcher was unable to make a play on. Hudson merely slowed down the ball, and a charging Mark Ellis was forced to concede the infield single.

Now the bases were loaded — and on a misplayed ball by a rattled, tired pitcher to boot. Even if you don’t subscribe to the theory that Hudson should have already been soaping up the shower, only the most thick-head observer would dispute the contention that someone — Ken Macha, pitching coach Rick Peterson, the ghost of Charlie Finley — should visit the mound to make sure Hudson wasn’t completely discouraged.

I guess Ken Macha is fairly thick-headed. No one went to the mound. I don’t think it will surprise you that Hudson walked in the insurance run. That, apparently, was enough to wake the A’s manager from his slumber; he brought in Chad Bradford, who induced an inning-ending ground-out. Not that Bradford could have been called on to do the same thing five or six batters earlier.

No one said why Ken Macha stuck with Hudson for 127 pitches, but I can make a pretty good guess. In the first half of the season, Hudson racked up 10 no-decisions, with many of the games turning out to be leads that the bullpen blew. Despite losing his last two starts, Hudson is pitching very well this year, with a 2.61 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 221 innings. Hudson’s name is bandied about as a Cy Young contender since his stats match up rather nicely with those of leading candidate Esteban Loaiza — except, of course, for the eye-catching category of wins. Loaiza has 19 wins. Hudson, thanks to those accursed no-decisions, has only 14. And Cy Young voters love those gaudy win totals.

I don’t know for certain that A’s kept Hudson in the game last night so that he could bag the win and bolster his Cy Young credentials. Macha would probably argue that Hudson has been the A’s best starter this year (with Mulder injured, that’s certainly true), and that having your best pitcher out there gives you the best chance to win.

The only trouble with that line of thinking is that after 100 pitches, a fatigued Tim Hudson isn’t your best pitcher. In that situation — runner in scoring position with nobody out in a tie ballgame — the best pitcher on the A’s is the guy in the bullpen, Chad Bradford. It’s not only Bradford’s job to pitch in that scenario — he’s thrived at it this year. Perhaps my fellow idiot Jason can summon up the stats, but when it comes to preventing inherited runners from scoring, Bradford ranks among the best in the league; he’s certainly the best on the A’s.

(And even if you don’t bring in Bradford to face Anderson, you certainly bring him in before Hudson has a chance to give up another run. The Angels bullpen has been phenomenal this year. Maybe, down 2-1, you can get lucky and scratch out the tying run. Down 3-1 with six outs to go? Game over.)

Maybe Bradford doesn’t come through, if he’s brought in to pitch to Garret Anderson last night. But the point of managing seems to be putting the right personnel in place to give you the best chance of winning. By that standard, Macha was a very poor manager last night.