Tony La Russa’s luck runs out in seventh inning
Tony La Russa was having a brilliant day in Game 3 of the NLDS until he went to the well one too many times … and Ben Francisco mad him pay.
ST. LOUIS – Tony La Russa was having a great day until Ben Francisco came along.
Everything La Russa did through the first six innings turned to gold. His decision to walk Carlos Ruiz and pitch to Francisco in the seventh was a clunker.
Francisco, pinch-hitting for Cole Hamels, launched a three-run home run into the Phillies bullpen for a 3-0 lead. He walked Ruiz, who got his first hit of the series in his previous at-bat, with two outs and Shane Victorino on second.
For a while, it looked as if La Russa's decision to wait until Game 3 to start Jaime Garcia was money. Garcia has been much better at home this year and had the Phillies blanked through six innings.
The Phillies threatened in the sixth, but escaped when La Russa decided to intentionally walk Hunter Pence and Ryan Howard followed with a harmless groundout.
La Russa's choice to switch Allen Craig to leftfield and Lance Berkman to right for today's game came up big at the start of the sixth. Hamels hit a line drive to left which required Craig to make a nice grab running toward the wall. Chances are, if that's Berkman, Hamels would have had a double.
But the good moves were buried by Francisco's dramatic homer.
"If you follow our club with Ruiz over the years, he's gotten as many big hits as the guys in the middle of their lineup," La Russa said. "He just terrorizes us and he'd already hit two balls hard. The matchup we liked, I like. I made the decision. Francisco has had a tough time with Jaime, so it really wasn't a tough call."