Read All About
It: 21st Century major-league manager uses pinch runner for star
player in extra inning game! Move
works!!
In Saturday’s
White Sox-Tigers contest, Sox first baseman Jose Abreu walked in the tenth
inning, following a solo homerun by Melky Cabrera. Sox manager Rick Renteria then used a pinch
runner, who scored on a triple by Avisail Garcia. If Abreu had been running, that would’ve been
a double by Garcia, with third base occupied.
Detroit has two players, first baseman Miguel Cabrera and DH Victor
Martinez, who are both older and slower than Abreu, yet I’ve never seen the Tigers
pinch run for either, so this was fairly big in terms of strategy.
The use of a
pinch runner also meant that the Sox had to insert a new first baseman at the
bottom of the inning. Todd Frazier
switched from third to first and Tyler Saladino from second to third while
Yolmer Sanchez, the pinch runner, went in at second. The net result—better infield defense in what
turned out to be a 6-4 Sox win in ten.
It would’ve been
really nice if the Sox were so old school they had a six-player bench with a
first baseman ready to go instead of having to play a game of musical chairs on
the infield. But I’ll take my old school
where I can get it.
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