In the days of specialization, and situational baseball, Thursday night was the worst. Mike Scioscia went to the mound in the seventh inning to take John Lackey out of the game. The bases were loaded with two outs, but Lackey had one out in the same situation two batters earlier.

 

Scioscia strolled to the mound for the second trip in the seventh. Lackey screamed, "Scios, it's mine." That's the type of grit you want from a guy in that situation. I hope Andy McPhail was watching that. He's a free-agent as soon as the Angels either get eliminated or win the World Series.

 

My question is, why would you take John Lackey out in that situation? He was clearly your best option in a game of this magnitude. Why would you go to the bullpen to bring in guys who weren't good enough to start in this game, to get out of a jam, when the guy who started the game was perfectly capable? Mike Scioscia, who's a great manager, went by "The Book." I don't know where that "Book" is, but someone needs to burn it.

 

Scioscia's decision blew up in his face as the Yankees captured the lead. Fortunately for him, his gutsy team battled back and regained the lead to win the game and force the series back to Yankee Stadium. For that, Scioscia doesn't have to answer too many questions and spend the entire off-season being the goat for a bad decision.

 

Rob Long