First let me say, I am not one of these people that says Macha needs to be fired after every decision goes wrong.  Having said that I was very, very upset with his decision making in last nights game and I will try and explain my thinking.

I watched the entire game, and let me say that Saarloos was awesome.  He gave everything he had and only giving up 2 runs in 8 IP is more then we could have expected.  Saarloos was keeping the ball down great, and when he does that he can be very successful.  

What I don't understand is how I can see things that Macha can't.  In the 7th inning Saarloos left a pitch up -- a big fat hanger -- that Torii Hunter just missed and fouled straight back.  I saw that pitch and thought "Oh Sh**, Saarloos might be losing it".  Saarloos battled back and got Hunter to ground into a DP, but still the warning light was on.  

Macha at this point needs to know his pitchers.  We know that as the game gets later that Saarloos can lose it -- and lose it fast.  Not a knock on him, just what we have observed.  However, since Saarloos was pretty much on his game up until now, I would have sent him out to start the 8th, but with Morneau due up 2nd in the inning, why not have your lefty up and loose, just in case?  

On to the 8th.  Saarloos facing Cuddyer and does the same thing.  Throws a hanger that is up in the zone and the A's are lucky it stayed in the yard as he lines it to LF.  Now the count is two straight batters -- two straight hanging mistake pitches.  After watching the last two batters get big fat mistake pitches, does Macha go to the lefty to get the Twins best power hitter?  No he doesn't.  Why?  Because he did not have the foresight to see this coming, and there is not a lefty up and ready in the pen.  So Saarloos continues the trend that should be forseeable at this point and throws his 3rd straight mistake pitch during an at bat, but finally, this time, it is not missed and Morneau goes yard.  

Here are my big complaints.  Why can't Macha see that Saarloos is getting his pitches up?  Why can't he prepare a "just in case" lefty for Morneau?  I fully realize that Keisler or Flores could have given up a HR to Morneau as well  (although his last 3 year stats of 208/258/345 vs lefties would seem like a good matchup).

I am not saying that Macha lost us this game with his decisions.  We only scored 1 run and there is no guarantee the pen could have held the 1-0 lead.  What I am saying is that the decisions made by Macha in the 8th inning of that game were quite obviously (to me) not the correct ones, and why give a big power hitter that has no track record of success against lefties a chance to tee off vs a righty that has just thrown two mistake pitches to the last two batters?

If someone can explain to me why this is good logic, I would love to hear it.  Kirk had done more then his fair share, and it was time to get him out with a power hitting lefty up.  I realize that after Morneau we would have had to try to matchup with the next guys, but to be honest, I think in that inning Morneau is the one guy you have to put your best matchup against, and then worry about getting out the rest of the Twins (who after Morneau were Tiffee, Batista, Kubel -- not exactly murderers row).  

Okay, diatribe over.  I just felt like we should have stolen a game there, and we lost the oppurtunity to with a bad decision by Macha.

Thanks for listening.