© Tim Heitman | 2020 Oct 25
You knew this was coming.
Former starting pitcher Mike Krukow blasted Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash’s decision to pull starter Blake Snell in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s World Series clincher, during his hit with Murph & Mac on Thursday.
Krukow made sure to point out that he is a fan of analytics and open to changes within the game based on new data, but that there isn’t any excuse to pull a starting pitcher when he is dealing like Snell was.
“With one out, a guy gets a base hit, Austin Barnes the ninth hitter, here comes Kevin Cash walking out and I went ‘No, he’s not going to do this,’” Krukow recounted. “He goes out there and he calls for the bullpen. I got up from my chair, I walked outside, I was so pissed off. I came back in about five minutes later and looked at my wife Jennifer and said ‘Sweetheart, I’m rooting for the National League. I want this to end. I can’t stomach this anymore.’
“When a guy is commanding a game like Snell is commanding a game. There is not one stat, there is not one spreadsheet, that can support the decision to take that man out of a ballgame. And when Cash went to the bullpen, I thought to myself ‘You’re an idiot.’”
Snell had struck out nine and allowed two hits through 5 1/3 innings on 73 pitches before being pulled. The next three batters due up — Mookie Betts, Corey Seager and Justin Turner — had struck out six times in all six of their previous at bats in the game.
“When you are witnessing in front of your eyes that this guy is dominating the game. How many swing and misses? These guys were having to cheat to catch up to the fastball and they were going out of the zone above the letters because they had to cheat. Because it was getting on them so quick and it had great late movement, and with that lazy arm delivery he was schooling them.
“How do you turn your back on what you’re seeing? To me it’s a manager that doesn’t have the balls to do what should be done. To let that guy have it.”
Listen to the full interview below.