Russell asks McClouth to Bunt!

nope it's not just you....we won that game last night because this team is developing a swagger not because russell outfoxed larussa. that's not to say russell doesn't have to do with the swagger, but he does need to re-think certain situations.

further explain...he took the bat out of mclouth's hands to get the runner to 2nd. had to know full well that larussa was gonna walk bay to get to the not so fleet of foot/ double play ball prone Ronny Paulino. unlike some of the other guys who posted last night that they knew we were gonna come through. i just knew paulino was gonna hit the groundball to short. fortunately, it worked out. i could've lived with it had nady or doumit been behind bay, but it was a questionable call with paulino in that spot IMO.

also, i've become a big proponent of using the closer in the bottom of the 9th of a tie game to give your team a good chance to get to extra innings. i thought salas in that situation was a disaster waiting to happen. fortunately, that  one worked too. and russell was able to use capps in the 10th.

all in all, it was an exciting, allbeit nerve-racking ending.

one last thing...in the 8th, i though ph-ing for bixler was the right move. i just think he should've used gomez there(nevermind the platoon situation with minkie vs a righty). ironically, gomez vs the righty ended up being the key to that inning one- batter later and he popped out. but, in the process, he burned two players to make one move and ended up placing the pitcher ahead of both of them in the order(removed bautista).

i'm not knocking russell, i actually like him. i just think we're in a position now to win some ballgames. russell just needs to manage the roster better late in the games to give us the best chance to win.