Washington Nationals: Takeaways From 5-4 Loss To Tigers

Baker’s Two Bad Decisions

Last night, I wrote about how Baker had the managerial edge over Brad Ausmus. While I still think that, Baker made a couple of questionable decisions in last night’s game.

The first one occurred in the sixth inning. As Ross’ command continued to fade, it took Baker a while to warm anyone up in the bullpen. Even though the Nats’ bullpen has been a bit overworked over the last few days, you could tell Ross was starting to tire out. He had Felipe Rivero warming up during the replay of the Gose slide, but he stuck with Ross to face Miguel Cabrera.

In the end, Cabrera made them pay with a pinch-hit single to center to put the Tigers up 5-3. Ross ended up finishing the inning by getting Ian Kinsler to pop up. Ross wasn’t getting hit that hard in the inning and with the bullpen being used a ton, it’s not a horrible decision by Baker, but still brought about some questions.

The big mistake came in the bottom of the eighth. After Wilson Ramos singled to left with one out in a one-run game, Baker left him in to run instead of bringing in someone with more speed, like Michael Taylor. In the end, it cost them as Ramos was thrown out at the plate on a good relay by the Tigers’ defense on a Clint Robinson double.

While Baker made a bad mistake, the one thing I liked was that he admitted it after the game. There will be nights when he makes some interesting choices, but at least he was able to say he screwed up:

Next: Thoughts On Controversial Slide