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McManagement For La Russa, the perfect moment never comes
NEW YORK (AP) -- St. Louis manager Tony La Russa kept waiting for the perfect moment. The way things are going, he'll have plenty vacation time to figure out how many good ones flew by. The Cardinals are on the brink of elimination, and the one thing missing from each of their three losses to the Mets is impossible to miss: Mark McGwire. Already reduced to pinch-hitting duties because of a bum knee, the most feared slugger in the game has practically disappeared. "I was going to wait until the tying run came to bat. If so," La Russa said after Sunday night's 10-6 loss, "he was in there." La Russa grumbled the other day the only part of his work that people seemed to care about was how he handled McGwire. Considering how Game 4 went, maybe we should have started paying attention to the rest a little sooner. In short order, La Russa's Cardinals lost the services of pitching coach Dave Duncan, the game, and most likely the National League championship series. To call it a frustrating night for St. Louis fans is like calling Shea Stadium, with its raucous crowds and jets roaring back and forth from La Guardia Airport next door, a tough place to concentrate. Already down three games to one, the Cards get one more chance to figure the joint out Monday night. Stubbornly staying with his risk theme, La Russa will send out Pat Hentgen, who is 0-4 career against New York with an ERA pushing 6.00. At least Hentgen will have something that St. Louis' starter for Game 4, Darryl Kile, didn't: enough rest. La Russa elected to bring back his stud pitcher, who started Game 1, after just three days. The right-hander's career numbers on such short notice were disastrous to begin with: a 4-8 record and 6.66 ERA. Sunday night, Kile wasn't even up to that. La Russa said his problem wasn't velocity, even though it could summed up in one word -- as the real estate joke goes: location, location, location. "He was firing, but he was elevated and they didn't miss," the St. Louis manager said. Kile said pretty much the same, blaming his trouble on everything but too little rest. "I warmed up great. I felt good," he said. "I pitched bad." He was just being kind. Actually, the Mets bulldozed Kile by opening up with four consecutive doubles in a four-run first, then backed the equipment up and ran over him again with three more in the second -- aided by some questionable strategy from La Russa.
With two outs and Timo Perez at second, the manager elected to give an intentional pass to Mike Piazza. Kile, gingerly working the outside corner, complicated matters by then giving left-handed-hitting Robin Ventura an unintentional pass to load the bases. Todd Zeile followed by lining an 0-2 pitch into the corner in left. "We had good success getting to him early," Zeile said. "It seemed like the balls he got hurt on were fastballs, on counts he had to come in on." Location wasn't only Kile's problem. Duncan got himself tossed in the fourth after Kile's 3-2 curveball to Perez was ruled ball four. Duncan purposely delayed making a pitching change until plate umpire Dale Scott came to the mound and then Duncan tried to argue the calls. When Scott walked away, he continued yelling at Scott without effect until second base umpire Steve Rippley tossed him. La Russa, too, searched all game in vain for a slot to pinch hit McGwire. The game's most feared slugger made it as far as the on-deck circle twice, but never into the game. The first time came in sixth, after St. Louis climbed off the deck from Kile's disastrous start and back within 8-6 of New York. But with the big redhead set to bat in the pitcher's spot, catcher Carlos Hernandez grounded out sharply to Zeile at first with a man on to end St. Louis' half-inning. Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Cardinals reliever Mike Timlin sandwiched a hit batsmen between two errors by third baseman Fernando Tatis and suddenly it was 10-6 New York. La Russa said he didn't send McGwire up because, "I felt like we'd get one more guy on base, then there wasn't going to be a way to avoid him. Probably that was the only time I thought in the game, realistically, to take a shot." And he didn't. McGwire made the on-deck circle again in the eighth, but La Russa admitted that was mostly posing. The Cardinals had two on and two out and La Russa did use a pinch hitter -- but it was Craig Paquette. With McGwire looking on, Paquette grounded out to third to end the inning. There were no guarantees at all that if McGwire made it to the plate in either inning, things would be different. "I don't empathize with him at all," said New York catcher Mike Piazza, a pretty feared slugger himself. "Coming off the bench and being expected to hit a home run is not an easy thing to do." But first, McGwire has to get to the plate.
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