The rain delay in last night's Tigers game couldn't have possibly been timed any worse. Not just because it came right as Miguel Cabrera was stepping up to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, but because it gave Brad Ausmus nearly two hours to overthink what he would do next.
The result was that he made nearly all the wrong moves, and cost the Tigers an important game against the now division-leading Kansas City Royals. There's absolutely no excuse for blowing a game to a division rival in which your starter threw 8 innings of 1-run ball, especially when it was so easily avoided.
And there's even less excuse for getting out-managed by Ned Yost at any time, ever. And that's exactly what happened last night.
Let's address the first major issue here: you don't pull your best hitter in the 9th inning of a 1-1 game. When that hitter is Miguel Cabrera, you don't pull him unless he has somehow lost the use of both his legs, and even then you weigh out your options first. And if for some reason you do pull one of the best hitters in baseball for a pinch-runner, you better have that runner do something. Yet, Ausmus never had Rajai Davis attempt to steal, even against a pitcher, in Jason Frasor, who is historically rather easy to steal on. So what, then, was the point of removing your best hitter, for a guy who's not going to steal anyway? I can understand the idea of playing to win in the 9th, but you still have to weigh the risk in switching out Cabrera against the possibility of that at-bat coming back around in the 10th.
Which, of course, it did.
And that brings us to the next issue: Hernan Perez shouldn't have even made this team out of spring training, much less been on the team to bat in Cabrera's spot in the 10th with the bases loaded. There's already a light-hitting backup infielder on the roster in Andrew Romine, and he can at least play defense and occasionally get a hit. Even so, there's no way any sane person would use him as a pinch hitter, so why would you use Perez in that spot? If Ausmus were so insistent on taking Miggy out, why not leave Rajai in and move JD to first? It's not like he'd be any worse defensively.
So, knowing that Perez is going to be batting in Cabrera's spot, why would you have Anthony Gose and Ian Kinsler both bunt? Let's say, best case scenario, you get the runner to third. Perez goes up and does what he did, and you're still down to your last out. And that's assuming that said bunt(s) didn't result in at least one out, at which point Perez's at-bat ends the game.
And that takes us up to Perez's at-bat. And the question has to be asked: with the bases loaded and nobody out for a rather ineffective Greg Holland, why even allow the worst hitting position player on the team to even swing the bat? If you absolutely must send him out there, tell him he is not to take the bat off his shoulder for any reason whatsoever. And yet, on a 1-1 count, he went swinging, right into a double play. And in doing so, he took the bat out of Victor Martinez's hands, allowing Holland to pitch around him. Imagine how different that game looks if V-Mart comes up with the bases loaded and one out, assuming Perez doesn't take a walk himself.
Of course, one can't exactly absolve the offense of wrongdoing. JD Martinez has been abysmal at the plate over the last month, Yoenis Cespedes had a couple chances to come through late and failed at both, and he and James McCann both stepped to the plate with bases loaded and failed to produce. So it's fair to say Ausmus doesn't carry all of the blame here. But it's still his job to give his team the best opportunity to win, or as much as one can when the heart of the batting lineup is struggling and your best relief option outside of your closer has all of two months of major-league experience.
And by any measure, he failed to do that.
The next two series, with a resurgent Minnesota team and a white-hot Cardinals squad, aren't going to be any easier to face, so this was the Tigers' best chance to gain some ground in their division until they face the bottom-feeding Brewers.
Let's hope Ausmus has figured out how to use his bench by then.
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