Walt Weiss Has No Reason To Be Upset At The Team After Last Night’s Loss

Jul 29, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Cubs catcher John Baker (12) scores the winning run against the Colorado Rockies during the sixteenth inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

In case you missed out on what happened last night, the Colorado Rockies lost to the Chicago Cubs in the 16th inning of a marathon game, 4-3. Starlin Castro hit a walk-off, sacrifice fly to right field.

After the game, Walt Weiss was reportedly ticked off with his team and issued this quote courtesy of The Denver Post:

"“Fifteen innings without scoring a run, you don’t deserve to win,” Weiss said. “Three runs in the first and their starter is out of the game early. You can’t win that game, you don’t deserve to win.”"

Well Walt, where do I start? Every game going forward it seems like Walt Weiss is back at Regis High with his management of the bullpen and aggressive base running. The Colorado Rockies seemingly had the game wrapped up last night in the tenth inning, but Uncle Walt decided to go outside of the box again and try a squeeze play with a decent contact hitter in DJ LeMahieu at the dish.

The pitch was low and outside to where LeMahieu couldn’t reach it and the failed squeeze attempt left Justin Morneau, yes, Justin Morneau stranded halfway between third and home. Many questions went through my head once I saw Morneau at third base. Why would you try to squeeze with one of the slowest players on the team. Honestly, I’m still scratching my head.

I had another issue towards the end of the game with Walt deciding to bring in rookie starter Tyler Matzek to pitch the 16th. Matzek probably hasn’t come out of the pen since High School so why would you mess with his routine? Not only did Matzek pick up the loss, he probably lost some confidence as well. Granted, he wasn’t really hit hard but Walt put the rookie in a position to fail.

There is some blame on the team as well for hitting with runners in scoring position last night. They scored all three runs in the first inning off of Edwin Jackson but left 12 men on base. To add-on to the woeful night it was, Cubs backup catcher John Baker picked up the win and induced an inning ending double-play.

I could understand bringing in Matzek if the team is in contention and needs wins but c’mon Walt, this isn’t high school baseball.