Opinion: Understandable For Ausmus To Pinch-Run For Cabrera In Ninth
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - It made sense for Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus to pinch-run for perennial All-Star first baseman Miguel Cabrera in the ninth inning of a tie game Sunday. After Cabrera walked, Ausmus replaced him with speedy Rajai Davis, who already had eight stolen bases this season.
When Ausmus made the switch, the series finale against the Kansas City Royals was knotted at 1-1. Because of rain, the bottom of the ninth began 103 minutes after the top of the ninth.
Reliever Jason Frasor, on the mound for the Royals, had an ERA of 0.87 through 13 appearances. The Tigers had struggled to hit all game, managing only one run, and that one was unearned.
Taking Cabrera out of a game is never ideal, of course, but neither is scoring only one run in a game, sitting through a rain delay of nearly two hours, and then facing a reliever who had allowed only one earned run all season.
If the game went to extras, two-time All-Star closer Greg Holland (ERA of 0.00) was the next reliever the Tigers would face.
Ausmus was trying to end the game in the ninth. The Tigers eventually lost, 2-1, in 10 innings.
"You don't want to remove your best hitter from the lineup, but it's the bottom of the ninth," Ausmus said. "Raj is significantly faster runner than Miggy. It didn't work out this time, but to me it's a move you have to make at that point in the game."
Cabrera would have been no threat to steal, and he would have almost certainly taken two hits to score, while Davis might have been able to take second base and then score on a single.
As it turned out, of course, Davis did not steal, the Tigers did not score, and the team eventually lost, so Ausmus will be second-guessed.
The Tigers did load the bases in the ninth, however, and even though Davis did not steal, his presence on base put much more pressure on Frasor than Cabrera's would have.
Ausmus explained after the game that he gave Davis the green light to steal second but not third.
"He had the green light at first, but once he was at second with Victor [Martinez] at first, it becomes a little more difficult to steal," Ausmus said. "First of all, it's a little more difficult to steal third. But secondly, if he gets caught and Victor goes as well, well now you end up with Victor on second, who probably can't score on a single. So I just felt like Raj could score on a single, he's in scoring position, so at that point I held him up, hoping for a single."
The Tigers stranded three in the ninth inning, and they wasted another bases-loaded opportunity in the 10th when utility player Hernan Perez - hitting in place of Cabrera - grounded into a double play. Perez has two hits in 19 at bats this season.
Would the result have been the different with Cabrera in the lineup? One should never bet against a two-time MVP, but even great hitters only get a hit one-third of the time.
In 13 career appearances against Holland, Cabrera has a batting average and on-base percentage of .231. Against Holland, Cabrera has hit three times, struck out four times and grounded into double plays three times. So while the odds of Cabrera getting on base against Holland were obviously much better than those of Perez, there was no guarantee.
First and foremost, however, Ausmus made the call to pinch-run for Cabrera because he was managing to win the game in the ninth rather than assuming failure and managing for survival in extra innings.
No matter the rationale, the end result of the game as a whole was a bitter pill for the Tigers. Second baseman Ian Kinsler suggested Detroit gave the game away.
"I don't know why you guys are always trying to give credit to the other team," Kinsler said. "We lost the game. Sometimes we do that. Sometimes we beat ourselves. Sometimes in baseball there's situations that you could take advantage of that you don't.
"It's not always the other team outperforming you," Kinsler continued. "Sometimes you just don't perform, and that's the way this game goes sometimes. We probably should have scored some more runs tonight."
Detroit stranded 10 runners Sunday. The team was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The Tigers had plenty of chances to win. The fact they lost does not come down to Ausmus's decision to pinch-run for Cabrera.