re: At what point is it OK to lay blame at the feet of the players?

quote:

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LSU got the first out of the 5th inning, and then the slow-moving train crash came. Let's just marvel at the death by a thousand paper cuts:

Walk
Single
Wild pitch
Error by Hale
Hit by pitch

At this point, two runs were in, the bases were loaded with only one out, and the ball had only left the infield once. Poche' took care of that with the next hitter, and the bases clearing single essentially ended the game right then.

Mainieri then went to the pen too late for it to matter. Mainieri has always had a slow hook, and it has been especially pronounced this postseason as he has lost all faith in the bullpen to make key outs. This is why he sat on his hands, with Hunter Newman already warm in the pen, during Poche's slow motion meltdown. At this point, Mainieri is what he is when it comes to bullpen usage, so there's really no point getting too upset over him following his standard script.

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