Wow, what a way to end the series and it is interesting how this conversation evolved. Maddon basically screwed the pooch in the last 2 games and his players bailed him out! Of course, this is my opinion, but the talk all around baseball is how bizarre Maddon's decisions were. I was beside myself when he took Hendricks out, but that isn't even close to how much there was to it. All season long, Maddon kept talking about "play your game" and "don't do anything different". Well, he got to the last 2 games and panicked with his pitching decisions. When Lester bounced the ball off Rossy's mask, they panned to the dugout and it looked like Maddon was shrinking from fear. They kept panning the cameras in there for the rest of the game and he looked smaller and more frightened as time went by. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen happen in a ML dugout. But the players stayed loose and alive (and I give Maddon credit for developing that culture)! One of the most incredible aspects of the game came in the bottom of the 9th. Chapman had nothing left physically and he was emotionally crushed. He went out there with basically nothing except sliders in the 80's and he somehow kept Cleveland from scoring! That, and the rain delay was the turning point.
I had thought that Maddon basically panicked, and I would let it go at that, except his idiotic move to make Baez bunt with 2 strikes just shows the arrogance of Maddon to make the game about himself. There was no fathomable reason to have Baez bunt except that Maddon wanted to put his stamp on the game. He wants everybody to say "see what a maverick and a genius Maddon is". Well, it failed. Afterwards, Maddon had the nerve to say in an interview "everything was going perfectly until the home run". That was pretty bizarre because his managerial blunders led to the home run. I can't fault Lester's pitching because he was great for a few innings after the meltdown, but it didn't make any sense to bring him in when Maddon decided to make the change. First of all, it's embarrassing that he can't throw to first and it could have been disastrous when he failed to start a routine double play to end an inning. Is he a professional ballplayer or what? There is no excuse for his incapability to throw a ball to a base. He stood like a statue when Rossy had to sprint all the way down the line to field the swinging bunt that went bad. I hope he sees a shrink over the winter because I'm a little concerned about him next year when he doesn't have his friend and crutch GrandpaRossy to catch for him. What I also think is a bit bizarre is the way Maddon and Lester started talking about Lester being used in Game 7 immediately after Game 5 was over. It seemed like Maddon was on a pre-determined mission to insert Lester into the game, thus undermining the entire bullpen and even Hendricks. Hendricks had that game under complete control and it could have ended uneventfully. He was visibly PISSED when he came out. I'm thinking that the team will eventually need to air this out with Maddon, because Maddon's arrogance nearly blew it for the Cubs (and Hendricks never got the credit he deserves). THANKS to the incredible team, they won! I guess Maddon's maddening decisions at least led to a whole lot of drama, but jeeze louise, do the Cubs always need to make it so agonizing? Why is it always so hard for them? The White Sox ended their drought by going 11-1 in the playoffs and 4-0 in the WS!