Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 10, 2006
Why Rogers in Game 3?

Jim Leyland answers the question, why not start Rogers in games 2 and 6?

So why not start Rogers in Game 2?

'That's a great question,' Leyland said. 'I'll tell you why we did what we did. We felt like we considered that very strongly.

'But at the same time we felt like the effort against the Yankees was such a draining effort that we decided to give him the time, a little bit of extra time.'

That makes sense. Sort of. Rogers, after all, is 41 and in his 18th major-league season. But the A's have to love today's Game 1 pitching matchup of their ace, Zito, against the Tigers' No. 4 pitcher.

I wonder what Leyland is going to use to motivate the Tigers this time. He got the David vs. Goliath working in the first round, but no one, especially the Athletics, are dissing the Tigers now. Sometimes motivation is a one shot deal, like shaving down in swimming, or green jerseys for Notre Dame football players. Leyland got the players going early in the season by pointing out they didn't have the killer instinct.
That got them off to a very good start, but it faded. He got them back to that against the Yankees and we'll how far it carries into the post season.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:47 AM | League Championship Series | TrackBack (0)
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