What an absolute Goat-F**k of a game. Why in the world did Bobby Cox not let Tommy Hanson pitch the ninth? He had only thrown 98 pitches and looked as sharp as I've ever seen him in the eighth inning, but NOOOO! Let's bring in the overworked bullpen guy who had tons of trouble in the ninth inning last night. That's an unforgivable move. Let the kid at least try to get his first major league shutout -- he was as sharp as I've seen him and there's a pitcher's umpire behind homeplate for once.
Of course, we could have managed more than one run if we had gotten more than five baserunners. I guess we should be thankful that we got a whole run with only three hits.
This team's offense and bullpen is in complete suck-mode right now. As fantastic as the starting pitching was, the rest of the team is on the other end of the spectrum.
Props to Joe Simpson in the postgame for really critizing the decision not to let Hanson pitch the ninth. "He doesn't get a chance to lose his own game [...] he's earned the chance to pitch the ninth inning," Simpson said. "He had shown no signs of fatigue, no signs of wildness, and he deserved a chance to finish it, and didn't get that opportunity." Damn right Simpson!
Hanson's best start, and he doesn't even get the chance to go out there and warm up in the ninth. I'm disgusted.