Amazing! One wrong move costs Buck

[wildcard]

And puts the O's in a bad, bad situation.  Buck's use of Nuno  comes back to bite him and the team.

Gausman did his job.   Limited the surging Yankees to 4 runs in their own ball park over 6 innings.  106 pitches.   He starts the 7th and allows an infield hit to Romine.  Seemed pretty harmless up 11-4.  

Buck has his foot on the Yankees jugular.   He has three inning to go.  He has Given, O'Day and Brach ready.   The game should be well in hand.  But Buck gives the Yankee an opening.   He doesn't go to Givens.  He calls on Nuno.   The top of the order is coming up and Buck goes to his third best choice.   Not Givens, Not Hart but Nuno.   Lefty Gardner.  Switch hitting Headly. Righty Holiday and lefty Ellsbury.     Their is some reason to call in a lefty pitcher.   But why Nuno instead of Hart?  So Nuno gets Gardner. One down.   Headley doubles.  Nuno walks Holiday and they lefty Ellsbury hits a great slam vs lefty Nuno.   It a hard lessen that Nuno is not up to facing the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.    Now its 11-8.

I can't blame Buck for going the Givens, O'Day and Brach.  Brach had not allowed a run this year before last night.   Bad night for him.  

But Buck faltered for a second. He underestimated the surging Yankees by going to Nuno instead of Givens or Hart.   

Now the O's are behind the 8 ball.   Ubaldo facing a surging Yankee team.   Probably not good.  Brach threw 30 pitches in one inning.  He should probably not be used today but who know what Buck will do.  O'Day is probably only good for one inning.  Givens is available having only thrown 6 pitches.

The O's went almost a month without Tillman and 12 days without Britton without really missing them.   But vs the Yankees in Yankee Stadium their loss showed up. An it will haunt them for the reminder of the road trip though New York and Boston. What if Buck had stuck with his best.  Givens or Hart instead of Nuno.

Buck is a great manager.  I guess the amazing thing to me is how fast things can turn on one poor (in hindsight) decision.

 

[thezeroes]

6 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Buck has his foot on the Yankees jugular.   He has three inning to go.  He has Given, O'Day and Brach ready.   The game should be well in hand.  But Buck gives the Yankee an opening.   He doesn't go to Givens.  He calls on Nuno.   The top of the order is coming up and Buck goes to his third best choice.   Not Givens, Not Hart but Nuno.   Lefty Gardner.  Switch hitting Headly. Righty Holiday and lefty Ellsbury.     Their is some reason to call in a lefty pitcher.   But why Nuno instead of Hart?

IF he had gone to Hart for three outs and he had held them in check for the Seventh, then who do you pitch in the Eighth???

IF you go to O,Day in the Eighth with a non-save situation and up by seven runs and he allows nothing, who do you pitch in the ninth????

IF you then go to Brach in the Ninth in a Non-Save situation  up by seven runs as YOU suggest and he implodes as he did, who do you then go to???

Now in a Non-save situation, you have used your entire back end, WHO DO YOU have for the remainder of the series???

Brach, O'Day and Givens are now only available for one more game of the series and probably NOT today with the short turn around but HART is available. 

I get it, it was a winnable game IF all the components that were put into place did their jobs but it was still a THREE RUN LEAD going into the ninth and the best we had was in the game to close it out.  We still lost. 

When would you use Nuno?? the situation warranted his usage and he left with a lead even if ineffective.  If he had been left in to give up all the runs you would have a valid point.  Beings it was a SEVEN run lead, Nuno was the choice and did not do his job but was pulled with the game still in hand.  Buck then made the moves to garner a win, it DID NOT HAPPEN so its not on Buck.

[eddie83]

If Britton is on team he doesn't use Nuno. He could have pitched 2 of Givens/O'Day/Brach/ and rested one. Then depending on score he may or may have of had to use Britton in 9th.  I think after how well he pitched vs Tampa Buck was willing to give Nuno a chance. Many times around here Buck gets criticized for not pitching his lesser arms up big.

[ORIOLE33]

Buck didn't make a wrong move. If those bum pitchers can't hold an 8 run lead, that's on them.

Remember, Brach was given the ball in the fricken 9th with a THREE run lead.

[Frobby]

I blame each and every one of the pitchers who allowed the Yankees back in this game.    Using Nuno made perfect sense.     It just didn't work out, just like using Brach and Aquino didn't work out.   And I do blame Gausman for not nailing the door shut.  

[eddie83]

Twice tonight the pitchers lack of aggression hurt them. I know Nuno doesn't match up well vs Holliday but you can't pitch around a hitter with a 7 run lead to face Ellsbury. If it is a close game or you are trailing that is different. Make him hit. Then of course in the 9th Brach not throwing a fastball on a 3-2 count to Headley. No difference between a walk and Homerun there.  

[Aristotelian]

Using Nuno was a perfectly logical move. With a 9-1 lead you want to spare as many of the elite guys as you can for later in the series. Unfortunately we not only ended up using the elite guys, we lost the game. Good decision, just an awful series of events. 

[thezeroes]

23 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

If Britton is on team he doesn't use Nuno.

If Britton is on the team, Nuno may not be.

[eddie83]

Just now, thezeroes said:

If Britton is on the team, Nuno may not be.

We will still have one long man. Who, I don't know.

Just a shame. All year I have felt we won games that if I was a fan of the other team I would have felt it was a game they should have won. Not last night. 

[ArtVanDelay]

I'm frequently critical of Buck's bullpen usage but there's no way this is on him. 

[thezeroes]

Currently the Orioles have Aquino, Nuno and Asher as long men.  One will be gone IF Tillman is activated from DL.  Another will be removed when Britton comes off the DL

[Dark Helmet]

17 minutes ago, thezeroes said:

Currently the Orioles have Aquino, Nuno and Asher as long men.  One will be gone IF Tillman is activated from DL.  Another will be removed when Britton comes off the DL

Asher is really the only one of the three that has looked impressive. I know Aquino got a win in his first start, but his command isn't there and he doesn't have the stuff to compensate that. That said, Buck will keep a LHP.

[eddie83]

4 minutes ago, ArtVanDelay said:

I'm frequently critical of Buck's bullpen usage but there's no way this is on him. 

The thing is Buck is usually someone who doesn't pitch long men in a spot like that.  He gave Nuno a chance that if Britton is here he normally wouldn't get. I don't blame Buck. Who wants to burn your 3 best when you have a 7 run lead.  

[eddie83]

2 minutes ago, Dark Helmet said:

Asher is really the only one of the three that has looked impressive. I know Aquino got a win in his first start, but his command isn't there and he doesn't have the stuff to compensate that. That said, Buck will keep a LHP.

Aquino stuff wise looks like he has nothing. I mean I was shocked he pitched that great vs Boston. Posssible Asher may stick. Nuno was good vs Tampa. He needs matchups to be successful. 

[wildcard]

40 minutes ago, thezeroes said:

IF he had gone to Hart for three outs and he had held them in check for the Seventh, then who do you pitch in the Eighth???

IF you go to O,Day in the Eighth with a non-save situation and up by seven runs and he allows nothing, who do you pitch in the ninth????

IF you then go to Brach in the Ninth in a Non-Save situation  up by seven runs as YOU suggest and he implodes as he did, who do you then go to???

Now in a Non-save situation, you have used your entire back end, WHO DO YOU have for the remainder of the series???

Brach, O'Day and Givens are now only available for one more game of the series and probably NOT today with the short turn around but HART is available. 

I get it, it was a winnable game IF all the components that were put into place did their jobs but it was still a THREE RUN LEAD going into the ninth and the best we had was in the game to close it out.  We still lost. 

When would you use Nuno?? the situation warranted his usage and he left with a lead even if ineffective.  If he had been left in to give up all the runs you would have a valid point.  Beings it was a SEVEN run lead, Nuno was the choice and did not do his job but was pulled with the game still in hand.  Buck then made the moves to garner a win, it DID NOT HAPPEN so its not on Buck.

Buck has been Britton, Brach, O"Day and Hart in games where the team is ahead.  He had been using the other relievers in games where the O's were behind or the above pitchers have pitched two days in a row.   Buck took a different path then his normal by using Nuno while the O's were ahead. And it turned out badly.