Mark_Concannon's Blog

In Chess, it's known as the "Endgame," the pivotal moves in the waning stages of a match where there are only a few key pieces left on the board. I'm not an expert at Chess and I'm certainly no Grandmaster at baseball, but I know enough about the latter competition to question two of Ned Yost's Endgame moves yesterday in a contest I attended at Miller Park.

The Brewers were in great shape to put the Phillies in "checkmate. The home side had runners at first and third with no one out in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the 7th. With the pitcher due up, Yost called on Tony Gwynn Jr. to pinch hit. Gwynn is a terrific young prospect who may patrol the team's outfield for years to come. But yesterday, he hadn't seen major league pitching since going on the disabled list 3 weeks ago. And Gwynn faced crafty veteran Tom Gordon(Gordon is 40, any pitcher 40 or over still in the big leagues is automatically deigned "crafty"). And Gordon ate the kid alive. Gwynn was retired on three pitches after awkward swings at each delivery. Meantime, Craig Counsell, another left-handed stick, sat on the bench. Counsell, a pressure tested warrior with much big game experience, has been one of the team's best offensive performers(a .350 average at gametime) He is a tremendous contact hitter. Any ball in play in that situation would have certainly scored a run. But buoyed by Gwynn's strikeout, Gordon whiffed Jason Kendall and got Rickie Weeks on a grounder to end the threat. Counsell later came off the bench and singled in the 9th, but by then the train had left the station

Because in the top of the 8th, The Phillies had two outs with left-handed hitter Greg Dobbs at the plate. Rather than to bring in lefty-killer Brian Shouse, Yost stayed with right-hander David Riske who promptly gave up a walk to Dobbs and a single to Chase Utley, another left-hander, before surrendering what proved to be the game winning 2-run double to Pat Burrell. Shouse was then summoned to retire Geoff Jenkins but by then the train was pulling out of the station.

As we saw last season, there is little margin for error for any team making a run at the playoffs. The Brewers must get smarter in Endgame scenarios going forward or their playoff run will end before it gets started.