GIANTS 7, BREWERS 5...BONDS HITS 660
The Brewers lost to the Giants this afternoon before a sellout crowd in San Francisco. The biggest play of the game is also the worst managerial decision made in Ned Yost's year-plus at the helm. With two outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd, the Brewers decided to pitch to Barry Bonds. With the Brewers up 4-2 at the time, that was a questionable decision. What really was amazing is that when Matt Kinney went 3-0 to Barry Bonds, rather than give him an open base and take their chances with AJ Pierzynski, Kinney tried to sneak two high fastballs by Bonds. The first time he did. The second time, Bonds gave the Giants the lead and tied his Godfather Willie Mays for third all-time in career homeruns.

Usually I'll talk about the pitching staff and the offense in this part of the game review, but I'm so pissed/frustrated/confused that Ned Yost would chose to pitch to Bonds in that situation that I'm going to bitch about it more.

I don't think I would pitch to Bonds in that situation with any pitcher in Major League Baseball. Not Prior, not Beckett, not Colon, and certainly not Matt Kinney. I know the rationale for the decision will be "we didn't want to put the leading run on base", but I'd rather put the leading run on base than let the leading run cross the plate. Those old baseball axioms were designed pre-Barry Bonds. When a power-hitter was a guy that hit 15 or 20 homeruns (sometimes less) a season. When a power-hitter homers about every 8 at-bats, it significantly changes the strategy for managing a game. I like Ned Yost, and I'm not going to use this site as a "question the manager every time something goes wrong" type atmosphere. It's unfair, and frankly uninteresting. But I will call him out when I feel it is necessary, and this is one of those times. I respect going after a guy and challenging a hitter, but there is a time and a place for that. A 3-0 count with one of the greatest (if not the greatest) hitters of all time representing the leading run is not that time and it cost the Brewers a chance at victory today.

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