Was Scott Servais thinking?

What was the Mariners manager doing?

Mandatory Photo Credit: Luke Johnson / The Seattle Times)

Yesterday, the Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais made one of the most mind-boggling decisions I have seen in quite some time by a manager. It was the type of decision that gets a manager fired.

Let me set the scene.

The Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox entered the bottom of the 10th inning tied 2-2. The Mariners were unable to push across the “Manfred Man” in the top of the 10th and needed to keep Boston off of the scoreboard to keep playing baseball. Due up for the Red Sox was Rafael Devers, Rob Refsnyder, and Dominic Smith. The Mariners still had All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz available but Servais decided to not use him and go to Jhonathan Diaz. Servais also decided to let Diaz pitch to Devers, which resulted in Devers hitting a 2-0 pitch off of the Green Monster for a walk-off win for the Red Sox. There are so many things to dissect of Servais’ late game managing.

The first decision that you have to question is not going to Muñoz in the 10th. Andrés Muñoz may be the best closer in all of baseball. The Red Sox had the heart of their lineup up. After the game, Servais said he was hoping the Mariners could get a lead to go to Muñoz. Not being flexible with his closer and not using him in a tie game cost the Mariners the game. The odds of a team scoring at least 1 run in extra innings is high. The odds of the home team scoring when the away team does not score are even higher. Boston had their best part of the lineup due up and one of the best hitters in all of baseball leading off. Scott Servais decided to hold his best weapon with the hopes of using him if the game got to the 11th. It never did and the Mariners lost the series with their best arm still in the bullpen. And to make matters worse, the Mariners have an off-day today so it’s not like Servais was saving Muñoz for the next game.

For Scott Servais, did he realize the significance of the game? Prior to Wednesday’s game between the Sox and Mariners, the two teams had split the season series 3-3. Wednesday was the tie breaker and an important tie breaker. If the Mariners and Red Sox ended the regular season tied with the same record, the winner of Wednesday’s game would get into a playoff spot over the other team. Yes, there is still 2 months of baseball to be played but currently the Red Sox only have a 1.5 game lead ahead of the Mariners. It’s within the realm of possibilities that these 2 teams could be battling it out for the final Wild Card spot. Wouldn’t you rather have the tie breaker over the Red Sox? Scott Servais threw that possibility away by not using his best pitcher in the 10th inning.

That was only the first problem with Servais’ decision. 

The second issue was how he decided to attack the Red Sox lineup. Servais brought in Jhonathan Diaz, who appeared in only 1 other big league game this season. In fact, Diaz had made 17 starts in 18 appearances in AAA this season and now Servais was using him out of the bullpen in extra innings. Diaz is a lefty and the Red Sox had 2 lefties due up in the bottom of the 10th. The problem is the lefty that was leading off was Rafael Devers. It doesn’t matter if Devers entered play on Wednesday hitting .239 off of lefties, you don’t let Devers beat you. In fact, Servais let Devers beat him all series long as Devers was 7-13 in the series. Diaz started the at-bat off with 2 consecutive balls and I thought for sure with first base open, he would have put Devers on. Servais let Diaz continue to pitch to Devers and the very next pitch was the last pitch of the game.

Even if Servais would have walked Devers to pitch to Refsnyder, it would have been a terrible matchup. Refsnyder destroys left-handed pitching as he entered Wednesday hitting .318 off of southpaws. There is no justifying going to Diaz over Muñoz.

It’s impossible to defend Servais’ decisions. It is true that Muñoz threw 18 pitches the previous day but Servais had Muñoz warming up earlier in the game. With a day off today, Muñoz was available to pitch but Servais chose not to. There are a ton of decisions that major league managers have to make. Surely this scenario must have been thought through but the more you dissect it the more it feels like it was made on the fly.

The facts are the facts in this case. Scott Servais left his All-Star closer on the sidelines to watch a Triple-A starter pitch to one of the best hitters in extra innings in a game that could have serious playoff ramifications. Mariners fans and their front office should not ignore these truths.