More than a fiery leader, Piniella has proven often to be a master of in-game strategy.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 16, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - There are times when Devil Rays general manager Chuck LaMar just sits back and watches Lou Piniella work.
LaMar will think along with Piniella as he manages a game, usually anticipating what decisions will be made and strategy employed. But sometimes, like last Friday against the Orioles, Piniella surprises even his boss with what he does and when he does it. And when it works out as it did then, with a series of moves unfolding perfectly to allow the Rays a victory in a game that seemed lost, it illustrates exactly how good Piniella can be.
"I love to manage along with him," LaMar said. "I just wish I could keep up with him."
With a payroll of barely $22-million, the Rays often are overmatched, facing teams that have both players with more talent and more talented players.
But the Rays have been able to catch up, and believe they will be able to keep up, because of the way Piniella maneuvers them into favorable matchups.
"When people describe Lou as a major-league manager, the first thing that they talk about is his competitiveness, his will to win, his fiery personality, his on-the-field tirades at times with umpires," LaMar said. "And something they fail to see is that he's one of the best strategists in the game."
Friday proved a good example.
With the Rays down 3-2 in the sixth, Piniella resisted some potential earlier moves, moves LaMar said he was thinking would have been made, to save his best for last. He sent up Robert Fick as a pinch-hitter in the ninth, and he tied it with a home run. He saved Damian Rolls and used him in a key 10th-inning sacrifice situation. And with the winning run on second, he had his best right-handed pinch-hitter, Eduardo Perez, available to face lefty reliever John Parrish, and Perez delivered the winning hit.
"Lou's pretty good at picking guys at the right times," said John McLaren, a Piniella coach for 13 seasons. "He's been very successful over the years."
Piniella likes winning better than anything, so he would have no complaints if the Rays scored eight in the first tonight and he didn't have to make another decision except what to eat after the game.
But more often, it's his decisions - from whom to play to whom to use off the bench to how and when to use them - that give the Rays their best, and some nights their only, chance to win.
Knowing they often would be outmanned, the Rays built this year's team to allow Piniella to create as many favorable late-game matchups as possible, adding proven veterans, such as Perez and Fick, to the bench and stocking the roster with interchangeable parts.
"You give him enough matchups, righty-lefty situations, he can keep us in a ballgame," LaMar said. "That's how we're going to try to win more of those close one- and two-run games we lost last year. We couldn't do it with a big payroll, so we're going to try to do it with interchangeable parts offensively and on the bench and in the bullpen."
The decisions Piniella makes in the late innings might seem impulsive, but they usually are rooted in statistical evidence and sometimes are planned days, or at least several innings, ahead of time.
"As a manager," Piniella said, "you better be six outs in front."
For example, he let left-handed Tino Martinez face lefty reliever B.J. Ryan in the eighth against Baltimore, knowing then he'd rather save Rolls and Perez.
Piniella, and his coaches, will look everywhere for an edge. They keep notes on specific opponents and refer to them from series to series and will talk to scouts, friends and common opponents. They study the statistical breakdowns, specifically lefty-right numbers and previous pitcher/batter matchups, before a game. They watch how players on both teams warm up and how they do early in the game. They keep the stat sheets, scouting report and a media guide on hand.
Sometimes, they even will keep a player out of the starting lineup because he might give them a huge advantage in a potential late-game matchup with the closer.
"Stats don't lie, but I still think Lou's strength is that he takes the stats, but when the final decision comes, it comes from the gut, and I think that's why he's been so successful," McLaren said. Actually, Piniella said, it's more like a gut feeling based on facts.
"Statistical data works," Piniella said. "My hunches are how a guy's swinging the bat, what kind of pitchers they have on the other side, knowing the hitter and knowing the pitchers.
"If a guy's 0-for-11 or 12 or 13 off a particular pitcher, I'm not going to get a hunch that he can hit him. Conversely, if a guy is 6-for-7 off a particular pitcher, I'm not going to get the hunch that this is the time he gets him out."
Once Piniella knows what matchups he wants, he does what he can to get them, and then it's up to the players to deliver.
"We'll see a pitcher warming up and it's just a natural instinct for him or I or (hitting coach) Lee Elia and we pick up what this guy has done against our guys, and we see who is coming up, and sometimes it's just, Boom! It just bites you that there's a big matchup that you've got," McLaren said. In an April 7 game against the Yankees, it was getting Brook Fordyce to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth against closer Mariano Rivera because he was 5-for-11 against him. (Fordyce bounced into a game-ending double play). In that same game, Piniella used Martinez as a pinch-hitter in the eighth because he matched up better against setup man Tom Gordon than against Rivera. (Martinez walked but was erased on a double play).
But it was Friday against Baltimore when Piniella seemed to do everything right.
Down 3-2 after six innings, Piniella waited patiently for the right situations, knowing the Orioles bullpen was depleted from a 13-inning game the night before.
With one out in the ninth and right-handed closer Jorge Julio on the mound, Piniella sat Toby Hall, his hottest hitter, to pinch-hit Fick because he wanted a left-handed bat, and Fick hit the homer.
When Jose Cruz drew a leadoff walk off lefty John Parrish in the 10th, Piniella hit on two more. He had Rolls available to bunt Cruz to second and, after the Orioles intentionally walked Rocco Baldelli, he had the right-handed Perez pinch-hit for Geoff Blum, and Perez made Piniella look smart.
"He just has a knack for putting people in situations to succeed," LaMar said. "He's masterful at that."
