Washington Nationals: Three Takeaways From Wild Win Over Tigers

Baker Has Manager Edge Over Ausmus

If you were doing a tale of the tape for both of these teams before the series began, it would be clear that Baker has the edge over Ausmus in the manager category. Last night, that decision became even more clear-cut based on some of the questionable decisions during this game.

Both of these managers had interesting decisions to make in the latter innings of the game. Let’s start with Baker first. In the seventh, he left Strasburg in the game to bat with first and third and no outs, but Strasburg was able to reach on the bad fielding play by Sanchez on the bunt.

While Baker did leave Strasburg in to start the eighth on 103 pitches and he walked Miguel Cabrera, but it was a good call when you consider how much work the Nats’ bullpen has had lately.

As for Ausmus, his questionable decisions came in the top of the eighth. With two outs and a man on second, he elected to pinch-hit Victor Martinez against Blake Treinen, but ended up wasting him because Baker chose to walk him intentionally.

Two batters later, with Jarrod Saltalamacchia pinch-hitting for Anthony Gose, Baker brings in Felipe Rivero so the Tigers’ catcher hits left-handed and the Nats ended up being correct on that call because Rivero struck him out to end the eighth.

Now, Ausmus wasn’t helped by Cabrera’s decision to try to go to third on a wild pitch earlier in the inning. However, on this night, Baker made all the right decisions and it became more evident why Ausmus is on the hot seat as his team has lost seven games in a row.

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