#Dodgers Lose to #Cardinals in 13 Innings as Mattingly's Moves Are Questioned

I feel bad for Don Mattingly. He went with an aggressive decision to pinch run Dee Gordon for clean-up slugger Adrian Gonzales in the 8th inning. Even my wife asked why Gonzales was leaving the game. The guy's a freakin' clutch of the ultimate clutch hitters. And Mattingly pulled him to get a RISP.

It might have turned out well had the Dodgers been able to score, but Gordon never made it to second (he was out on a fielder's choice and the Cards retired the side with a double play after that). And now folks are already looking to post season, at least I am, and the end of Mattingly's career as the Dodger's manager. It was an excruciating game. The Dodgers left so many men on base I was getting tired of watching. The game was almost five hours long and was the third longest in NLCS history.

In any case, here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "Did Don Mattingly's removal of Adrian Gonzalez take Dodgers out of it?":

ST. LOUIS — Nearly half-past midnight here, the fireworks blazed, the rock music blared, and the red-clad crowd roared.

All of which was surely nothing compared to the noises rattling around inside the Dodgers' psyche — and surely inside their embattled manager's head — after they watched a precious postseason win slip into a loss.

It was 13 agonizing innings. It was nearly five tense hours. Yet for the Dodgers, the National League Championship Series opener felt like forever after the Cardinals stole a 3-2 victory Friday night at Busch Stadium.

It was just one loss, but it seemed like much more. It was the defeat of a team whose starting pitcher, Zack Greinke, threw eight mostly brilliant innings, striking out 10. It was the defeat of a team that had one hit in 10 chances with runners in scoring position.

More than anything, though, it was the defeat of a team whose managerial decisions led it there.

Don Mattingly, whose curious moves led to the Dodgers' only loss in the division series against the Atlanta Braves, pulled another ugly rabbit out of his cap to become the main player in their second postseason loss. Mattingly made questionable late-inning moves during the regular season, but under the postseason spotlight, his moves have been magnified and the heat has been turned up considerably.

Friday night, the spotlight initially focused on the eighth inning, when Mattingly pulled Adrian Gonzalez, his most consistent postseason hitter, for Dee Gordon, a pinch-runner who was quickly wasted. It was a decision that came back to haunt the Dodgers again and again during a game in which Gonzalez's bat was sorely missed in several extra-inning situations.

Then, in the 13th inning, Mattingly let his best reliever, Kenley Jansen, sit in the bullpen while Chris Withrow, pitching his second inning, allowed a one-out single and walk. Jansen finally came into the game and promptly allowed a game-winning single to Carlos Beltran, whose line drive to right field rocked the house.

Even as the Cardinals were celebrating on the field, though, once again the focus was on the Dodgers dugout.

"If the rest of the series is like this game, it should be a pretty good one," Mattingly said.

Good for who?

The situation that initially bewitched Mattingly occurred in the eighth inning of a 2-2 game. Gonzalez, who came in batting .333 in this postseason, led off with a walk. The plodding first baseman was immediately replaced by speedy pinch-runner Gordon.

Mattingly was obviously betting that Gordon could score in that inning and the Dodgers eventually wouldn't miss Gonzalez's bat. It was a questionable bet under any circumstances — it was first-guessed here — but it would have been a much safer bet if Gonzalez had been on second base, the usual spot for such substitutions.

At first base, Gordon, unless he stole second, was vulnerable to a grounder. He didn't have a chance to steal second. On the third pitch, Yasiel Puig hit a grounder and forced Gordon at second base, and the switch was for nothing.

"Well, it's one of those [situations] that you've got to shoot your bullet when you get a chance," Mattingly said. "If we don't use him there and the next guy hits the ball in the gap and he doesn't score and we don't score there, we're going to say why didn't you use Dee? . . . You get a guy on in that inning, and you take a shot at scoring a run."

But the controversy was only beginning. The move plagued the Dodgers for the next hour...

Continued reading.

More here, "Dodgers' long, suffering Game 1 ends in bitter defeat to Cardinals."

And at the New York Times, "Beltran Lifts Cardinals Past Dodgers in a Taut Game 1."