TORONTO – If he had it to do over again, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez might not have brought in rookie reliever Sugar Ray Marimon to start the 10th inning Saturday, with the score tied and Toronto sluggers Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista due up.
Marimon didn’t have to face Bautista, but only because Donaldson crushed the rookie’s second pitch, driving it over the left-field fence for a walk-off homer and a 6-5 Blue Jays win.
If a similar situation arises, Gonzalez said he might bring in closer Jason Grilli, despite an unwritten rule that most managers strictly follow: Don’t bring your closer into a tie game on the road. They generally like to use their closers in save situations, unless all other options have been exhausted.
The wisdom of that conventional thinking can be debated even in normal circumstances. Some baseball observers, particularly practitioners of advanced stats, argue that the best reliever should be used in more high-leverage situations, be it innings before the ninth or in non-save situations like the Braves were in Saturday.
But the impetus for Gonzalez’s change of thinking is solely due to the composition of the Braves bullpen.
“With our young, inexperienced bullpen, we’ll have to think about it,” Gonzalez said before Sunday’s series finale.
He and pitching coach Roger McDowell discussed Sunday morning how it would’ve made more sense to use Grilli in the 10th inning, when the heart of the Blue Jays’ order was due up, and have Marimon face a lesser part of the lineup if it came to that.
After trading Craig Kimbrel before opening day, the Braves bumped Grilli from setup to the closer role and were left with Johnson as their only experienced setup man. Left-hander Luis Avilan and a pair of rookies with no major league experienced before this season, Cody Martin and Brandon Cunniff, have formed the five-man core the Braves go to in close games.
Gonzalez wanted to avoid using Martin Saturday, since he already pitched in seven of the Braves’ first 10 games and threw 25 pitches Friday. And Cunniff was used to get the last out of the seventh inning, before the Braves gave a one-run lead to Johnson.
Johnson gave up a two-run homer to Jose Bautista in the eighth to put Toronto ahead, and Kelly Johnson answered with a homer in the ninth to tie. That set the stage for the 10th and the call to Marimon, who only arrived from Triple-A last week and had pitched in one major league game, working four mop-up innings after starter Trevor Cahill was knocked around early.
If a similar situation arises soon, it sounds as if the decision might — and probably will — be different.
“I talked with Roger this morning,” Gonzalez said. “With the inexperience of our bullpen…sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box. I went home last night and thought about it.
“We’ve got to think about our situation. Grilli has more experience facing the top three hitters than Sugar Ray Marimon. Put your guys in the best position where they’re going to be able to succeed. If you had (David) Carpenter and (Jordan) Walden, then you don’t even think about it.”
The Braves traded setup relievers Carpenter and Walden during the winter.
“That’s what makes it so much fun,” Gonzalez said of decisions like the one he’s considering for the bullpen. “You’ve really got to manage to what you think your strengths are, and what the weaknesses are, of your people.”
About the Author
