The Pirates scored a dramatic win in Minneapolis last night over the Twins. It was a game that tore Pirates fans down and brought them back up. What was lost in all the drawn was the way Hurdle managed the bullpen down the stretch in that game.
Morton did not end up making it through 6 innings. He allowed 3 runs over 5 2/3 innings. This left the rest up to the bullpen. In the 6th, Hurdle went to Jared Hughes to get the last out in the 6th, which is no surprise. What might've been a bigger surprise was leaving him out there to pitch the 7th. This left Hughes to do clean up duty in the 6th and his 7th inning duty. Also, in the 8th, Watson was put in when the Pirates were up 4, which is something that we have only seen Hurdle do a handful of times because of giving the big bullpen guys as much as possible. His bullpen managing got even crazier. After Watson coughed up the lead, instead of going to the other righties in the pen, he decided to go to Melancon, in the 8th on the road. He also left in Melancon to close it out after the Pirates reclaimed the lead. He had Melancon do cleanup duty and pitch the next inning, just like Hughes.
I think this means something. This could mean that Hurdle lacks trust in Guerra and Caminero, mainly. This especially made sense when Hurdle went to Watson up 4 knowing the Twins hit lefties very well. If Hurdle really had a sense of trust in the other guys, he wouldn't have had to go to Watson. Plus, Hurdle going to his closer after Watson coughed up the lead doesn't make it seem any better. It was pretty clear last night that Hurdle only has major trust in 3 guys in the bullpen. That's not going to work. I think Hurdle basically proved that this bullpen needs help. Now, we will see if Huntington goes outside the organization to get the help the team needs or if he just sticks with these cheap guys that he hopes gets fixed in the middle of a pennant race.
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