After lacking half of at the moment’s first sport of the Wild Card collection on account of work (ew), I made it house and stumbled on one thing that I ceaselessly conflict with: a puzzling Alex Cora lineup resolution.
I fired off a tweet about it, and most people appeared to agree with me.
The truth that Jarren Duran, who, should you could keep in mind, was at one level benched this season for his abysmal hitting off lefties, was in a platoon-focused lineup towards lefty Max Fried whereas Masataka Yoshida, Boston’s hottest hitter, sat on the bench, was merely a dumb transfer.
Duran has not solely struggled towards lefties this yr, however can also be 0-for-6 lifetime towards Fried (with all at-bats coming in 2025) with three strikeouts. Not precisely the dude I’d be going with in what’s an basically must-win sport on the highway.
We debated a bit within the OTM Slack about simply why Cora determined to go along with the extremely platoon lineup towards Fried when he doesn’t have any drastic splits. I can positively perceive Cora’s consideration of his personal gamers’ splits greater than the opposing pitcher, however on the identical time, platoons, splits and the like are supposed to give batters the largest benefit potential, and I simply don’t assume tonight’s lineup did that.
Leadoff Rob Ref is one thing I’ll all the time help, and Romy Gonzalez hitting cleanup towards a lefty is one thing I can positively tolerate. Even the speedy Nate Eaton makes basic sense together with his talents to trigger some chaos, although not essentially together with his bat. However sticking Duran into this lineup simply doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.
Not solely did it stop Yoshida from batting (which is my major qualm with the choice, I suppose). It additionally pushed Wilyer Abreu out of the lineup. Wilyer Abreu additionally has higher stats towards lefties than Duran and simply usually tasks higher towards them!
Although I’m getting off-topic from my major level, I simply genuinely can’t fathom why Alex Cora continues to power Duran right into a lineup spot (or only a lineup on the whole) that doesn’t make sense. It’s not like he’s getting paid $200M and having him on the bench can be considered as a monumental financial base. It’s not like he’s the best choice as a hitter, and even as an outfielder. But we proceed to see issues bent round him for no matter purpose, regardless of any situational or basic general struggles.
However, this issue of the lineup didn’t find yourself being immensely unhealthy for me personally, although it did for Duran, as he went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, as I bought some candy vindication finally. As if the universe might hear me complain or ponder — or perhaps simply learn a few of my tweets — the Duran/Masa debate would turn out to be a debate no extra with Yoshida’s pinch hit RBI single within the seventh.
Did issues finally work out for Cora and the Pink Sox on account of some situational administration afterward (which Cora has been nice with in relation to pinch hitters, btw.)? Sure. However as superior as Yoshida’s at-bat was, I’d a lot slightly have seen him for a further three at-bats after a month of being a catalyst for what dragged the Pink Sox over the hump into the playoffs.
So, whereas the platoon lineup initially seemed like one thing you’d see in a later Spring Coaching sport, I’m not immensely averse to it despite the fact that the offense didn’t give a lot tonight. I’m fully tremendous with operating one thing like that again tonight, however Yoshida needs to be in there by some means. Make him play the outfield. Make Rob Refsnyder play the outfield. No matter. Simply get him in there and cease attempting to power Jarren Duran to be “a man” for this group in conditions the place he has no earlier document of so doing.
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