What Pat Murphy said when asked about using Misiorowski in Game 4
· Yahoo Sports
The Milwaukee Brewers lost Game 4 of the World Series with a chance to clinch the championship with a pitcher on the hill who hadn't yet appeared in a World Series game this year, needing three outs in the 12th inning. Having taken the lead in the top half of a game in which Milwaukee had exhausted its top relievers, Shane Drohan was put in a tough spot, with a runner on base and nobody out.
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He allowed four singles and the Rays walked off the Brewers, 4-3. Could Milwaukee have instead turned to Jacob Misiorowski, the ace who will start Game 5 instead, for the final three outs?
Presumably, the right-hander would have still been available to pitch in Game 6 back in Milwaukee if things had gotten that far.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy was asked before Game 5, and here's what he said.
"He was willing, like anybody on our team is willing. But you have to weigh – [Antonio] Senzatela was going back out. He's experienced. He's throwing the ball good. We make that play, there's one out."
Senzatela indeed got a soft ground ball off the bat of Junior Caminero, but Joey Ortiz threw badly for an error. Murphy went to Drohan with lefties on the menu and Senzatela out of gas.
"Miz would have had to get himself ready," Murphy said. "Now, these guys are starters, and they have to get themselves ready. It's not like just pick up the ball from sitting in your chair there and throw. He would have had to get himself ready in a short amount of time, adjust to the mound, all that kind of stuff, get his body ready, and come in.
"Then the ramifications of that – a walk or a base hit, then the ramifications of that are different. Now somebody different is pitching today and all that kind of stuff.
"You're asking a guy to do something that ... could [Brice] Turang go play shortstop in a clutch situation? Yes. But you're asking a guy to do something. Or do you want Joey Ortiz? You want Joey Ortiz. Can Turang do it? Absolutely. Is he good at it? Absolutely.
"You make those decisions, and it can look like, oh, why didn't you do that? It would have been a simple solution. Why didn't you let so-and-so hit away? Why didn't you try to steal a base?
"I can second-guess a lot of things, and believe me I do. I could have done that. I could have done that. I could have left [Trevor] Megill in for the next inning. How do you know? Then he gives up two runs – just because nobody would question it? Nobody would question it. Everybody would say, of course you leave in Megill. He's your closer. Leave him in. And I thought bring [Aaron] Ashby right there against those particular hitters.
"You look back and you go, well, yeah. I usually don't get questions when it goes the other way, and that's part of the job. I get it."
After the loss in Game 4, Murphy was also asked about using Misiorowski.
"You can't blow that type of situation on a one-run lead on the road," Murphy said. "If we were in the 13th inning and we had a three-run lead, that might have been a little bit different. Probably still wouldn't have.
"We did the things we needed to do. They put the ball in play when they needed to and did some clutch things when they needed to there. We had the matchups we want. We made an error in – whatever the last inning, we made an error, and that's unusual. But we made an error, and they capitalized with a hit, a hit, a hit, and a hit."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Pat Murphy said when asked about using Misiorowski in Game 4