| Split | PA | tOPS+ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs RHB as LHP | 682 | 1.00 | .297 | .377 | .430 | .806 | 123 |
| vs LHB as LHP | 691 | 1.86 | .227 | .317 | .321 | .638 | 77 |
Hall of Famer Andre Dawson had a career OPS of .806; Carlos Gomez's career OPS is .638
When Lopez pitches to right handers, they hit like Hall of Famers. He does a good job, however, of pitching to left-handed hitters. Plain and simple -- that's why his job description is LOOGY: left-handed one out guy. He is not meant to pitch to right-handed hitters. The tOPS+ represents how good Lopez's OPS is in each of those splits relative to his overall OPS against. As you can see, he's a lot better against left-handed hitters.
Now let's take a look at Sergio Romo's career splits.
| I | Split | PA | tOPS+ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs RHB as RHP | 359 | 7.06 | .195 | .247 | .331 | .578 | 104 | |
| vs LHB as RHP | 206 | 2.59 | .189 | .261 | .276 | .537 | 92 |
Romo's better against RHH than Lopez, and it's not even mildly close.
It's fairly simple, or at least it should be: Lopez is not meant to be used against right-handed hitters. Romo is.
Yet, Bruce Bochy does not seem to understand this. So this is the sequence he goes with in the eighth inning:
That's right. Bochy let Lopez, in a 3-2 ballgame, face four right-handed hitters. He walked a couple guys, hit a batter...yet he was left in to face Mike Stanton. With the bases loaded. And, lo and behold, Mike Stanton hit a three-run double.
The Giants managed to score four runs in the ninth to tie the game, but that should have been enough to win it for them. It would have been enough, had Bochy just pitched Romo for two innings.
But the game went into extras, and something far more important than this game happened: Buster Posey was injured.
He's currently getting x-rays, so there's no news yet on the extent of the injury. But it appears to be quite serious.
I can't help but think that, had Bochy managed the bullpen well, the Giants would have gone home with the win and a healthy Posey.
It's not fair to blame the injury entirely on Bochy. That kind of thing is inevitable, and was probably bound to happen to Posey. But this loss is Bochy's fault. And judging by the way he's managed his bullpen all year long, namely his lack of faith in Romo and his enigmatic trust in Lopez against right-handed hitters, there's no indication that the future will be devoid of this kind of absurd bullpen management.
Today, I've lost my faith in Bochy entirely.
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