Tony-OH

I do think we're going to see Suarez gradually get more high leverage situations. He hasn't pitched in a bit now so I imagine we see him this afternoon. Let's hope not before the 6th inning.

Not sure how you can be a closer in the major leagues if you are unable to pitch on back to back nights. Was I thrilled to see Kimbrel pitch after using 16 pitches the night before? No. But I understood why. If Kimbrel says he's good to go, Hyde needs to know whether he really can pitch back to back night. It was clear almost from the very start that the answer was going to be no. In Hyde's defense, he had Cano warming up and had no issues removing Kimbrel with the tie run on 3rd and ringing him in. Hyde could have easily fallen on his sword and allowed Kimbrel to potentially blow the game, but he did not. I actually think Hyde showed a different side last night. Has he ever pulled his closer while a save opportunity still was available? From what I've seen so far from Kimbrel is that either he has his command or he doesn't. I think that's what Hyde saw last night and realized they were going to lose the game if he left him out there. With Cano's ability to get ground balls AND miss bats, he was the perfect guy to come into the 9th of Kimbrel struggled. And I think that's another thing he did to go "against the book". The book said to use Cano in the 8th and Kimbrel in the 9th, but I think Hyde had questions on whether Kimbrel could be successful on back to back nights. Thankfully Perez did his job in the 8th leaving Cano as the backup or to pitch the 10th if they went to extras. Personally, I like what Hyde did last night. He learned that he may have to coddle Kimbrel for awhile and that he very well may not be able to use him on back to back nights for close saves.

Agreed. He doesn't get it. He won't be around here for a bit. We're tired of his trolling and personal attacks.

Cano doing his O'Day magic!!!!!!

One strike more... C;mon Cano!!!

HUUUGGEEEe K

I was talking about the situation Cano was brought into.

Umpire missed two strikes..

Oh no, you can't miss that call.

A bad closer will make a manager bullpen management look real bad.

It's not an easy situation for sure.

This is the right move. Kimbrel had nothing tonight and Cano can get ground balls.

Really needs a K.

Agreed. Buck used his closer pretty much by the rules, including not bringing him in on the road in a tie game in extra innings.

Wow, Elly just watched a middle-middle curveball.

Oy, looks like we have bad Kimbrel tonight.

Really don't want two on for Elly.

Not throwing strikes... Not good.

3 straight curveballs. Interesting.

Let's hope we get last night's version of Kimbrel.

Probably has last inning there. Fantastic start. Really fun to watch him pitch like this.

Means is pitching like a video game right now.

I don't know how Martinez's nervous old lady rock is allowed pre pitch.

Cowser has to stop pulling off those outside offspeed pitches

Westburg short hoped a throw past Mountcastle. Mateo raced over and barehanded the ball and threw an absolute dart to Gunnar at second to get the runner trying to advance on the over throw.