re: So sick of Paul rolling the players under the bus

quote:

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Well, he probably shouldn't gave taken out the pitcher that was doing well

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Walker wasn't "doing well" when Mainieri took him out. You make it sound like EW was mowing down batters.

He threw a 0-2 a batting practice fastball thigh high over the middle of the plate to the lead off batter in the 5th inning after he'd thrown about 60 pitches and the result was a base hit.

He then walked the next batter who was batting number 9 in the order.

So there were runners on first and second with 0 outs and a 3-1 LSU lead with the top of Arkansas batting order was coming up.

Walker gave up a really hard hit ground ball to first base that got the runner on first in a fielder's choice at second base for the first out of the inning. So, there were runners on first and third with one out.

Walker was struggling at that point.

I know I was hoping at that point that Mainieri wouldn't do what he does so many times and leave a struggling pitcher in until it was too late. I was happy to see Hess coming in the game.

Hess allowed that lead batter who got the base hit on the 0-2 count to score on a fielder's choice but got out of the inning with LSU still leading 3-2.

Using 20/20 hindsight, sure, maybe Walker would have gotten out of the jam. But he may also have given up a 3 run home run at that point, too.