Written by the AP at ESPN.com
A town that already held bad playoff memories for Dusty Baker found a way to torment him again.
The Washington Nationals manager sat down in the interview room to explain two late-inning pitching changes that went south. Combined, they produced a 2-1 loss that left Washington on the brink of elimination in the National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs.
Judging by how Baker leaned in toward the microphone to answer questions, his seat must have already been hot.
“I probably couldn’t live with myself if [Kyle] Schwarber had had hit one out of the park,” Baker began, “which he’s dangerous to do that.”
That was in the bottom of the seventh with ace right-hander Max Scherzer still flummoxing Chicago’s hitters, but closing in on his 100-pitch limit for his return from a hamstring injury. A one-out double by Ben Zobrist, the Cubs’ first hit of the game, brought Baker to the mound with lefty-hitting slugger Schwarber on deck.
“I think we were all kind of 50-50 on what was going to happen,” Scherzer acknowledged afterward. The mound meeting ended with catcher Matt Wieters advocating for hard-throwing lefty Sammy Solis, and Baker agreed.
“These are pressure-packed situations. They’ve done their homework and they’ve done their job to come up with the best scenario in that situation,” Scherzer said. “I understand it. And when they made the decision, I was behind it as well.”
Cubs manager Joe Maddon swapped out Schwarber with righty-hitting Albert Almora Jr., who had already notched 10 RBIs in pinch-hit situations. When he jumped on a Solis changeup and singled to center field to tie the game, Baker already knew there might be some explaining to do.
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