MAY 10, 2009 -- SEATTLE 5, MINNESOTA 3

When is this horses**t managing going to end?!!! Ron Gardenhire does it again, taking out Nick Blackburn after seven innings with a shutout going and letting the bullpen blow the lead and lose the game in the eighth inning. This game is a perfect reason why this blog was started in the first place. Why Ron Gardenhire gets the accolades he does is completely beyond me. The only reason that Nick Blackburn was taken out of this game is that he had pitched 99 pitches. This stupid 100-pitch count NEEDS TO END!!!! For all of the complaining that Bert Blyleven does about the 100-pitch count during a telecast, he is exactly right. Why in anyone's right mind would you take out a pitcher throwing a shutout, absolutely cruising, just because he had thrown X-amount of pitches??? I am certain that if a Twins pitcher was throwing a perfect game in the eighth inning of a close ballgame (3-0 or less), Ron Gardenhire would take out that pitcher if he had thrown over a hundred pitches. In a perfect game scenario, I could see the leash maybe expanded to 110 pitches. Maybe. How many times will the move backfire on Gardenhire until he finally changes his stupid gameplan?


From the standpoint of the Mariners, they loved the move. They've been handcuffed all day long against Blackburn, and at that point, they'd even welcome Joe Nathan coming into the game -- anyone else other than the guy who's thrown shutout ball for the first seven innings. The success of the Twins will be how they do in the eighth inning this year. Last season they effectively lost the division because Ron Gardenhire consistently mismanaged just that inning -- the eighth. To me, there are two options: 1) leave your starter in to finish the eighth, never minding a pitch count but going off pitch location and speed (gauging whether your pitcher is still strong not by an arbitrary number but by visual hints), or 2) bring in Joe Nathan for a two-inning save. He's not the highest-paid, most reliable reliever in your bullpen for nothing. Get your money's worth. As long as the middle-relief continues to fail on a consistent basis, Gardenhire must adapt his gameplan. A good definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results; using this as a criterion, Ron Gardenhire is insane.


Today it was Jose Mijares and Jesse Crain and Craig Breslow that combined for the Matt Guerrier Special. Guerrier, interestingly, was the lone reliever to post zeroes! Not only did the 'pen inherit a two-run lead, give it up, and allow the go-ahead run, they also gave up not one but TWO crucial insurance runs, which loomed large in the bottom of the ninth, when the Twins scored a run and left the bases loaded. Two innings pitched, FIVE EARNED RUNS. If I'm Nick Blackburn, I am absolutely livid at Ron Gardenhire. How dare you take me out when I'm pitching a shutout -- how dare you? Unfortunately, these pitchers have been brought up from the minors to the big leagues with the mantra that pitching six or seven innings is good enough. A winning mentality -- telling the coaching staff that you'd have to rip the ball from my arm -- seems to be all but dead. As long as they get paid, they're fine with not winning the ballgame.


Long ago are the days when 120-130 pitches were the norm from starters. It's not like the standard back then was for their pitchers to go 120 pitches and then you bring in the bullpen, but that's how long it took them until they either 1) completed the game or 2) fatigued. Luis Tiant won a game in the 1975 World Series in which he threw 168 pitches, and he wanted to finish what he started. There was no taking him out at that point. Same with Jack Morris in 1991. Had Ron Gardenhire managed that team, Morris would have probably been taken out in the eighth inning of Game Seven -- it just underlines that thank God Ron Gardenhire did not manage the Twins in 1991. Look at it this way -- Nick Blackburn's last pitch he threw resulted in an out. The Mariners threatened only once against Blackburn, in the fourth, when they had runners on first and third and no one out, and the pitcher was able to get out of the jam unscathed. Why on earth would you adhere to some arbitrary, round number in order to dictate taking Blackburn out? Why why why?


It's becoming increasingly tiresome to watch the same crap lose ballgames for the Twins. The real question is, for us fans, HOW LONG WILL WE PUT UP WITH IT? I for one have seen enough; Ron Gardenhire must be fired.