Cork Gaines doesn’t like the reason Joe Maddon used Grant Balfour as his closer Tuesday night:

Joe Maddon. After the game, Joe Maddon took to Twitter to explain why he chose Grant Balfour to close last night’s game: “Closed w/ Grant tonight because I saw him walking his grandmother thru the hotel lobby today. It was an impressive moment. Liked his karma.” My first reaction to that is that he can’t really be serious. But there is no indication that any of it is a joke. And remember, Maddon is the same manager that let’s people at a Chamber of Commerce lunch pick his lineup once a year. In other words, the most mathematical team in baseball picked it’s closer last night based on karma and grandmas. I get that there are certain things that are out of the manager’s control. But the Rays can’t put as much time, effort, and resources into preparation and then let the outcome of a big game against a huge division rival hang on the whim of a concept that doesn’t actually exist and a grandmother who just happened to be in the same hotel lobby at the same time as Maddon. But what should really scare you is how often does Maddon do this and it doesn’t work. We never hear about the time he picked Sean Rodriguez to start just because Maddon liked the vibe of the green sneakers Hot Rod wore to breakfast only to watch him go 0-5 with 3 strikeouts and leave 9 runners on base. It’s like the gambler who always talks about the huge bet he won and never tells us about all of the losses. At the end of the day, most gamblers lose and there is a reason for that.

I got the same feeling when the the Rays brought in a medicine man. (For the record, they are 13-9 since the medicine man, but lost the first three games of that stretch. I guess the medicine took some time to work.) I suspect the unexpected power of Kevin Kiermaier had more to do with the surge, or the great starting pitching.

I like to think that Maddon is manipulating his players. He might not believe in Karma, but a struggling player might. So Maddon wants Balfour to succeed. He seems Grant do something good, then uses that as a psychological tool to get Balfour out of his funk. In the end, Balfour succeeded, the manager won his trust, and maybe the Rays will be a better team going forward. We’ll see.