I just hate this!

 

Saturday Quantrill : 5 IP  3 H 0 R  0 ER  2 BB  2 K  

Sunday Hentges:  5 IP  2 H  0 R   0 ER   2 BB 4 K

Tonight Morgan:  5 IP  1 H  1 R  1 ER  0 BB  9 K

Three great starts by your young starters, right?

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Francona decides that Morgan, already at 62 pitches (Hentges was at 57 on Sunday), is going to pitch the 6th inning.

Three batters later and after some gasoline poured on by Sandlin, Morgan's final line is:

5 IP 4 H  4 R  4 ER 0 BB 9 K

What does Morgan learn from this:  I suck and can't be a starter in the majors, especially after his last two starts.   

You know, this game didn't matter.   What did matter was Morgan's confidence, which is now ruined.  

Morgan is a gimic pitcher.  He, at this point in his career, will be lucky to go through the order twice.  LUCKY.  

So, not only do we lose the game, Morgan loses more confidence and we STILL have to go to the bullpen for the same number of outs.

One good thing did come out of Francona's move.   As we are going to lose this game now we only have to play 8 innings so our bullpen has one less inning to cover.

Face it.  Francona blew this one out of his butt.   Things happen.  But I have worked with young people most of my adult life and I can tell you confidence is everything.   Francona shot Morgan's tonight, and at a time we need to be BUILDING conficence.   That is why I HATE when managers put young pitchers in positions where they are likely to fail.  Let's hope, down the road later this year, Morgan can put these three outings behind him...just like he would have put the first two behind him if Francona had taken him out when he should have, after his five inning gem!

One more thing.  Let's see what Francona says after the game.  If he did the right thing he would say "Man, my fault.   I screwed up and turned his gem into a disaster."  However, I anticipate him saying "When you are dealing with young pitchers they have to find a way to get through the order a 3rd time.   Morgan is young, he'll learn."  Morgan, of course, will echo his manager's sentiments...just like good cannon fodder should.