EME already posted a great recap of tonight's game, but I just have to get something off my chest. Buck Showalter pinch hitting for Nolan Reimold with Felix Pie was simply moronic. Odds were against the Orioles no matter what happened, but what world is Showalter living in that Pie has a better chance of getting on base than Reimold? I mean, honestly, what in the world was he thinking?
I missed most of tonight's game, but got home during the bottom of the 7th inning, just as Brad Bergesen was being replaced by Mike Gonzalez. I watched through the end, and as Derrek Lee popped up for the second out of the 9th, I said to my boyfriend, "At least we'll get to see Nolan hit. It'd be nice if he could be the one to do something here," to which he replied, "Unless they pinch hit for him with Felix Pie." I said no way, no way would that happen. Of course we'd seen it before, but I just couldn't fathom it would happen again.
But it did. With the tying run on first base in the 9th inning and two outs, Buck Showalter replaced a batter who has, in his big league career, hit .263/.349/.443 with 22 HR and 24 2B in 524 AB. And he replaced him with another batter who has, in addition to this year hitting .241/.254/.295, a career batting line of .253/.299/.382 with 17 HR and 40 2B in 912 AB.
And why? Because at some point the Orioles decided that Nolan Reimold can't hit right-handed pitchers. Attention Baltimore Orioles: Reimold has a career hitting line against righties of .261/.343/.430. Felix Pie has a career hitting line against righties of .267/.311/.404. And on top of that, this year Reimold has done nothing but hit in his brief chances this season. Pie, in his chances, has simply done nothing.
So Felix pinch hit for Reimold, representing the go-ahead run in the 9th, and of course he struck out. He didn't even have a good at bat. He had a terrible at bat. He took two balls and a called strike, then took two ugly hacks at two pitches, the last one basically on the ground, to end the game.
As I was stewing after the game ended, my boyfriend said to me, "Maybe Buck knows something we don't know. He has to know something we don't know." And maybe he does, but I can't think of anything in the realm of normal human logic that could make it seem like a good idea to do what he did.
I know the Orioles have a lot of issues, and this isn't even close to their biggest problem. But...it's just...what is going on?