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Armando


Ori-Al

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I was taking a quick glance at the game thread while I had a few minutes, and I noticed Armando (Benitez) was being discussed. He's definitely a controversial figure who had a few bad moments (and a lot of good ones) in his time here. One very bad moment was a allowing the game winning homer in a 0-0 game in the 1997 ALCS. He gets blamed for the loss, but the offense went 0-12 w/ RISP in a game that should not have been scoreless. Mussina was great, but got no support that day, from the hitters or the pen. Bah.

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Sometimes the statistics don't tell the whole story. I remember tracking him through the minors, excited about the player who would arrive with the big club someday. He had terrific numbers. Unfortunately, there is no statistic for "Raving Lunatic ?". Just a binary stat would be nice.

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Benitez had some good years. Huge K rates combined with microscopic ERAs. Was always wild. A little like Pedro Strop. But he'll forever be haunted by six homers allowed in 12 innings in the '96 and '97 postseasons. And the fight with the Yanks, precipitated by him intentionally drilling Tino Martinez square in the numbers with a 98 mph fastball.

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I was taking a quick glance at the game thread while I had a few minutes, and I noticed Armando (Benitez) was being discussed. He's definitely a controversial figure who had a few bad moments (and a lot of good ones) in his time here. One very bad moment was a allowing the game winning homer in a 0-0 game in the 1997 ALCS. He gets blamed for the loss, but the offense went 0-12 w/ RISP in a game that should not have been scoreless. Mussina was great, but got no support that day, from the hitters or the pen. Bah.

I was at that game. The lack of clutch hitting, or even situational outs to get a run across, was very frustrating. Benitez gets blamed but I seriously doubt we would have scored a run if they had played for 20 innings. During the regular season that year, Benitez was lights out, usually taking the 8th inning duties. He never really got over allowing that homer in the ALCS to lose the series, IMO.

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I was at that game. The lack of clutch hitting, or even situational outs to get a run across, was very frustrating. Benitez gets blamed but I seriously doubt we would have scored a run if they had played for 20 innings. During the regular season that year, Benitez was lights out, usually taking the 8th inning duties. He never really got over allowing that homer in the ALCS to lose the series, IMO.

And in my memory, at least, it was Raffy who was the biggest culprit in terms of lack of situational hitting.

Tony Fernandez's home run landed about ten feet away from me in the temp bleachers on the flag court.

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