September 21, 2004
Big Game Pitcher?
One of the most important games of the evening is Houston at San Francisco. The Astros trail the Giants by 1 game in the NL Wild Card race, yet they have decided to start Carlos Hernandez against Bonds and company. Couldn't they have started Hernandez Sunday and let Clemens pitch today on long rest? It looks like they're skipping Backe to move Oswalt up for tomorrow. This has obviously been an important series on the horizon for a while. Why didn't Garner arrange his rotation better?
Dunno about how Houston handles things, but with the Yanks, I seem to recall they were wary of giving Clemens too much rest. There may have been games that they tried it and found that he was overthrowing, his fastball was up, and getting hit.
Top of the 5th: Giants 8 Astro's 2.
Because he's Phil Garner. His track record isn't so hot.
Very simple reason that they didn't push Clemens back to this game - money (ie, stadium attendance). Clemens brings in the fans, and it is more important to the organization to have him start at home in the last game of the homestand than it was to push him back a day to start a must-win series if they want to get into the postseason. Since the postseason also brings more revuenue, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but then, I have more common sense than most baseball owners.
