Again, I Really Do Not Like Tony LaRussa

No recap in this one.  This is more of a lamentation.  For those of you in my family that actually read this blog, it is pretty well known that Tony LaRussa is competes pretty closely with Dan Uggla for my least favorite person in baseball.

It is also well known that he has a propensity to over-manage and that he is a notorious pompous asshole.  He has two world series championships to wave in front of everyone and shut them up.  Also keep in mind that he was unable to capture world titles with THREE teams that had over 100 wins.

It is worst to lose to this guy.  His decision to start Chris Carpenter on three days rest did not work with his ace right hander lasting only three innings and departing after staking the Phillies to a four run lead.  The plan before this game was to knock Carpenter from the game early and work on the subpar Cardinal bullpen.  That is exactly what happened, except the bullpen shut the Phillies down.  LaRussa utilized all sorts of favorable match-ups including using four pitchers in the eighth inning to hold the Phillies scoreless for the rest of the contest.  The worst part about all of this stuff is that it worked.  The Cardinals won the game.

Cliff Lee could not hold onto the four run lead handed to him and the trainwreck that is the Cardinal bullpen allowed one hit over six innings.  LaRussa’s decision to start the series with Kyle Lohse giving him the opportunity to start Carpenter twice is going to work and his use of the bullpen was hard to argue with.  I think I would rather drive a nail through my thumb than agree with LaRussa, but the crap he did worked.  He bitched about the poor strike zone of home plate umpire Jerry Meals on national television and earned his pitchers a few awful calls.  Again, reprehensible, but it worked damn it.  I really hate him.

My mother in law took me to the game and I had to watch, in person, LaRussa win against the Phillies.  Come on Cole, don’t let LaRussa ruin this for everyone.