Steve Davis: Buck Avoiding Using Garcia
The Orioles are playing a man short right now, and it looks like it is hurting them.
On Tuesday night, they could have used a righty out of the bullpen. Buck was holding off on O'Day and passed on Jason Garica. McFarland walked a righty to load the bases and gave up a hit to a righty that lost the game.
If he had a right-hander that he had confidence in, I would imagine he would have pulled McFarland and let the righty give it a go. Similar situation to Sunday. The Angels had a runner on 2nd with two outs in a tie ballgame. Matusz on the hill. Buck has him walk 2 righties (Trout and Pujols) so Matusz can go lefty on lefty to Murphy. It backfired and they lost.
Again, if he had a righty he had confidence in, he probably pulls Matusz so a righty can face Trout, then Pujols.
Both times, he avoided Garcia.
In his postgame comments Tuesday, when discussing the bullpen, he didn't even name Garcia. It's clear Buck doesn't want to use him, which I understand. However, the Orioles are trying to play catch up for a playoff spot. Does it make sense to play, basically, a man down?
Throw in the fact that Lough, Reimold, Lake and Flaherty don't help you and that's a tough way to compete right now. Garcia better have a great future, because if they miss the playoffs by a game or two, we can look back on having Garcia, not Hunter, as a costly decision.