The Cubs were rained out on Tuesday night. They then played 17 innings of good ball, coasting to a 3-1 win behind Jeff Samardzija on Wednesday night before taking a 3-0 lead into the 9th inning behind Ryan Dempster. Then things totally collapsed.
In this case, collapse, as it has been too frequently over the past two seasons, is spelled Marmol. I honestly do not know what has happened to Marmol, but his confidence is completely shot and he just cannot seem to throw strikes. Nor does he seem to want to throw strikes. He thinks he can somehow fool batters into swinging at really awful pitches.
Marmol has had a lot of success in his early career fooling hitters, but things have caught up to him lately. Mainly, I think, because earlier he threw pitches that looked like strikes and lots of times pitches that broke sharply into the zone. Now he misses most of the time and batters have figured out that they can take pitches and put themselves in a favorable count from which he cannot recover.
On Wednesday night, Marmol got the save, but one must question the wisdom of putting him back out on the mound something like twelve hours or so later, and then allowing him to face five batters without getting a single out. This isn't the first time in the last week we saw this act. Marmol was equally awful on Sunday when he walked three Phillies and gave up a run in a non-save situation.
Somehow or other, Sveum seems to be convinced that putting Marmol out there day after day is going to bolster his confidence. It hasn't and it isn't. I thought Bob Brenly made a good point after the game that was seconded by Todd Hollandsworth. It is one thing to work on your closer's confidence and quite another to destroy the confidence of the other 24 players.
For example, after the two walks that began the inning, Marmol induced a grounder to 3B from Phillips that Stewart, either in his haste to turn a double play or because it took a tricky hop or a combination of both, misplayed to load the bases. The point is that this kind of thing happens when the fielders behind you become desperate. Any chance of an out and they play tense. Deep down, they know you are going to blow the game.
What is really puzzling, though, was that Sveum had both Russell and Dolis warming up, yet he chose to allow Marmol to face not only Bruce, who singled home a run, but Ludwick as well, who walked to tally a second run. This is just dumb.
After the game, Sveum suggested he may finally have run out of patience with his closer. One thing that seemed to tick him off in particular was that Marmol went 3-0 on the first hitter - Willie Harris, who came to the plate batting .088 - and then threw another slider. Yeah, this is dumb, but doesn't Soto have control of this situation as well? So maybe there is a confederacy of dunces operating here. I've never liked the way Soto calls games, especially in the late innings.
Not to be outdone by the dynamic duo of Marmol and Soto, the first mistake really belonged to Sveum. Here's the thing. Three of the first four hitters due up were left-handed, including the two best Reds players, Votto and Bruce. Russell had warmed up in the prior inning. This sets up pretty much as an ideal spot for the left-hander even if Baker had chosen to counter with Rolen off the bench.
However, we all know that Sveum believes in his heart of hearts that left-handed pitchers can only be used to get a key out against a left-handed batter, so they can never be inserted to start an inning even against a left-handed batter. This would destroy the confidence of your closer, and that, of course, is something unthinkable.
I'd like to think that all this is a learning experience for Sveum. It is certainly encouraging to think that he will drop Marmol, at least temporarily, from the closer role. But it shouldn't take this long to think your way out of this bag. In some way, you have to wonder if the right choice for a team in transition isn't a more seasoned or confident manager after all.
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