the ONE guy on the roster we would want Juan playing instead of in right, is in there

match.

TLR determined to prove to his nemesis that he's the superior skipper.

Dusty brings in a lefty reliever?

Ol' Tony will show him who the Hall of Famer is.... "

"If you want to manage, manage here."

Oh, that warm, wet feeling you have---it's from me pissing on you.

he's too fast. if he hits a ground ball, you can't risk losing the game if you can't turn a DP. so you have to come home anyway. and if you have to come home, you may as well make it a force out, and have a chance to turn a DP against a much slower runner - Nevin.

it didn't work out, but it was the right move.

There is no way Duncan could have done any worse than Enc did, except possibly hit into a DP. Albert didn't get it done either....although if Enc had done what Albert did, it would have been an RBI sac fly. He used three pinch hitters in the 9th inning of a game that conceivably could have made it to 12 or 13 innings.

TLR deserves plenty of heat for this one.

This team battled their asses off today and deserved a better fate.

The good news is, it seems like the "good" Cardinals are back.  This loss does one of two things.. fires the team up or brings them down.  Hopefully we see a fired up club tomorrow that coems out and just beats the shit out of the Cubbies.  

That's all a sports writer has to say to Tony this evening: "So, Pujols will obviously be sitting tomorrow with his poor showing this season at Wrigley?"

When Tony gives them a weird look, just say, "Yeah, well it makes about as much sense as pulling Duncan."

9 ABs, 1 hit, 4 Ks. a line of .111/.111/.222

there is no guarantee that Duncan would've come through. every match-up and stat supports TLR's decision, except for the "from the gut" or "ride the hot hand" approach, and we already know that TLR isn't that guy.

the Cards left the bases loaded in the 1st inning (and had a runner thrown out at the plate), left runners on the 9th and 10th, and many of the earlier innings. Suppan couldn't get through 5 today. Taguchi couldn't catch that flair to CF that scored the Cubs' 4th run.

my point is that the game wasn't only won or lost because Duncan didn't bat in the 9th. let's not all over-react.