This one’s on Lou

October 5th, 2008 at 11:07am Matt Trowbridge

I’m going to put this season-ending loss on Lou Piniella. That may sound unfair when he says it’s the players who didn’t hit. Lous says you can’t win with six runs in three games, something the Cubs have done the last two years in going 0-6 in the playoffs. Well, let a “player” bat, then. The Cubs were already down 2-0 in games and 2-0 in THIS game with two outs and a runner on third in the fourth last night. The Dodgers intentionally walked the No. 8 hitter to put runners on first and third. Rich Harden struck out. Why not pinch hit? Yes, it’s only the fourth inning, but everyone knows Harden only lasts about five innings anyway. Is two more innings of Harden worth throwing away two base runners? Not for a team that is struggling so mightily to score. Also, complaints are flooding in this morning about the Cubs not having any left-handed power hitters. Well, Lou should have made sure Micah Hoffpauir was on the postseason roster. Yes, it was only 73 at-bats, but Hoffpauir led the Cubs in batting (.342) and on-base percentage (.400) and was just a couple of percentage points from the top in OPS (.934) and slugging (.534). Wouldn’t you have loved to have seen what would have happened if Hoffpauir had taken that at-bat with two out in the fourth instead of Harden? I would have.

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