It's amazing how many times good managers over-manage in tight games. The Fan has pointed out several times during the season when Joe Torre cost the Yankees a game with poor choices. Tonight was Dusty Baker's turn to lose the game for the Cubs who had a solid opportunity to put the Braves on the ropes.

Baker's first mistake was to bring in one of his least effective relievers (Veres) into a tie game. Veres got old man, Julio Franco to ground out and then got to 0-2 on Castillo. Veres did not trust his stuff and went from 0-2 to walking Castillo. That brought Smoltz up and he was able to get the sacrifice bunt down with two strikes. Here is where Baker made his second mistake.

Rafael Furcal was the batter and Baker decided to walk Furcal to get to Mark DeRosa. Why would you put an extra runner on base in a tie game? I can see it if Sheffield was up, but not Furcal. After making the mistake of pitching Veres in the first place, Baker elected to walk Furcal instead of the obvious move of bringing in a lefty to pitch to Furcal.

Sure, Furcal is a switch hitter, but he is much less effective batting right handed. Pitch to Furcal and you have a good chance of getting him out with Remlinger. And then unbelievably, Baker left Veres in the game to pitch to DeRosa. DeRosa is not a good hitter and you are better off bringing in someone with good stuff and not the junk of Veres which gives a poor hitter plenty of time to get the hit. Of course, he got the hit and the game is over.

If you can get out of that inning still tied, then Smoltz is only going to pitch one more inning and then you can get into the soft side of the Atlanta bullpen. Bad managing loses ball games.

And how many times do you see a walk lead to a run. Hey, if you are beat by a strike, tip your cap. But if you are beat by not even having a chance to get the guy out, bend over, because it's going to kick you in the cabuckus.


But how about those Marlins! They were down in their game 4-1 and facing a 2-0 series deficit against the previous National League champs. But the Marlins came back and pulled away for a 9-5 victory.

Now the series goes back to Florida with Redmon pitching and it's the Giants who are in trouble. Jack McKean is a brilliant game manager. I've watched him all year and he manages a game better than anyone in baseball.


The Red Sox have a 1-0 lead early against Oakland. Pedro is pitching for the Red Sox. Game over? Could be.