Let Go and Let Ned

Having Ned Yost as the manager of your team is like being on the receiving end of a dutch oven.  It stinks, it’s rude, but you don’t leave the bed.  It’s still your bed.  You still, usually, love the executor.  It’s reeks of nuance.

Many national talking heads, most notably Pedro Martinez, were shocked with his decision to lift James Shields for Yordano Ventura.  Some were crazy that he even took out Shields.  I was ok with him pulling Shields.  The Royals got a below average start from Shields in that game .  He had settled down, but he did give up a broken bat single.  He did give up a walk.  The Royals had a stable of ready arms.

Others couldn’t believe he chose Ventura.  I was one of those.  Ned had many arms at his disposal, he just goofed on who he selected.  Ventura had just thrown over 70 pitches in a start the previous Sunday.  Ventura did not look his best in his start that previous Sunday.  Ventura has very little experience coming into games in relief, let alone with guys on base.  Yost had lefties in the pen to select.  He blew it. Yost has struggled with 6th inning pitching decisions this year.  It’s a hole in his dome.  It’s not the only one.

Ned’s decision to put Ventura in wasn’t even his worst mistake.  That mistake came when the Royals tried to implement a double-steal with Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer.  Normally, that type of over-managing and aggressiveness would be inexcusable.  Normally.

But things are far from normal right now, and it just isn’t fair to hang him for those two mistakes.  We can’t completely damn the guy when it was his same steadfast commitment to gambling that helped win the game.

The Royals won that game because rookie Brandon Finnegan took control.   Yost crashed when inserting one rookie pitcher, and shined when inserting another rookie pitcher.  Not only did he bring Finnegan into the game, he left him out there.  That took some stones and intuition.

They won that game because they tied a major league post season record by stealing 7 bases.  The Royals pushed it on the base paths at every opportunity.  It un-nerved the A’s, and generated those precious runs.  Yes, Yost slipped on a banana peel in the first inning.  It was  bumbling move.  Asking the lead-footed Butler and horrible base running Hosmer to execute a double steal was brain numbing.  He probably knew it himself after the fact.   It would have been easy, sane, to back off a bit. But Yost didn’t back off.  Yost doubled down and won.

There were so many heroes that miraculous night.  Brandon Finnegan, Eric Hosmer, Billy Butler, Nori Aoki, Jarrod Dyson,  just to name a few.  Isn’t it funny, just perfect, that the two biggest goats of the game, Sal Perez and Ned Yost, ended up on top of that list?

Baseball is a funny game, and it’s never made me happier than it did Tuesday night.  I’m grateful to many of the players for that memory, and, I can’t believe I am typing this… I am grateful for Ned Yost.

I can’t believe I am writing this because Ned Yost is starting Jason Vargas over Danny Duffy tonight.  I couldn’t disagree with this decision more, but maybe he is right and I am wrong.  I am beside myself that Duffy may only be used out of the pen for the ALDS.  Duffy was the team’s second best starter, running away.

There may be things we don’t know.  It’s very possible Duffy’s shoulder is still an issue.  It’s very possible Duffy’s got a new quirk in his delivery.  It is also very possible that Ned has decided to go with his gut.  He’s giving  the ball to a veteran that “deserves this moment”, even if this veteran is the worst starter in the rotation right now.  We just don’t know.

Ned is not, and never will be, my favorite type of manager.  Once this post-season is over, I kind of  hope  Yost decides to “retire”.  But you know what?  That does not matter today.  That does not matter this week.  Right now, he is the Royals manager.  Right now, the Royals are in the ALDS.

Right now, I don’t like how this bed smells, but I am not leaving it.  Right now, it’s time to let go, and let Ned.