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Why not? Against lefties over their careers Hays has an OPS that is 200 points higher. Yes, he has been in a slump. A bad one. Players are in slumps. Until they come out of them. You are vastly overreacting to 40 at bats. I'm glad our manager doesn't.
I'll go on the record and say that I thought in real time I would have left O'hearn in there, just on the chance he gets a hold of one to tie it up. Not that Hays can't, but O'hearn is on a heater right now and Hays is......not. That being said, I get the defensive side of the argument, I just would have been less inclined to worry about that in a game I was trailing at the time.
And Hays had to face a RH pitcher next at bat, in a tie game, I think it was to lead off the ninth. Would have been nice to have O'hearn at that moment.
All this being said, although I agree with Dystopia's point there, I am absolutely not on board with the argument that Hays is cooked, and all that. Just not as convinced as others that this spot was the right one for Hays, primarily due to how good O'hearn has looked, and I would have liked to have seen how he looked against the LH there.