Tracy Endures a Night Without Sleep
Manager Jim Tracy did not sleep Tuesday night. He sat in his hotel room and stewed about his decision to stick with reliever Giovanni Carrara, the right-hander who served up a pair of three-run home runs to left-handed-hitting Tyler Houston and Geoff Jenkins in the seventh inning of an 8-6 loss to the Brewers, instead of going to left-hander Omar Daal.
“The mistake I made [Tuesday] night was trying to win two games in one day,” Tracy said. “I won’t hide from that. I’ll learn from it, embed it in my mind and move on. To stand up and face the music ... it’s good to do that.”
Daal entered Wednesday night’s game with a 4-0 record and 1.03 earned-run average, and Tracy has called him the most valuable pitcher on his staff. But he didn’t go to Daal Tuesday night because he wanted to save him for possible long relief Wednesday night, when struggling right-hander Hideo Nomo started, or today, when slightly injured left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii is scheduled to start.
Daal relieved Nomo in the seventh Wednesday and pitched 11/3 scoreless innings.
Most managers get defensive when their strategic decisions are questioned, rarely admitting mistakes, but Tracy shouldered the burden when he said he was “kicking himself” for not making a pitching change during Milwaukee’s eight-run seventh.
“I’m not a finger-pointer, but [Tuesday] I pointed one at myself,” Tracy said. “I tell my players that before you point fingers, look at yourself in the mirror. If that’s the message I put out, I’m going to practice what I preach. I take responsibility for it.”
Tracy, in his second year as manager, didn’t think admitting a mistake would compromise his standing in the clubhouse. He doesn’t believe players will lose confidence in him.
“Failure is a tough teacher, but failure teaches better than any course you can take,” Tracy said. “Right now, it looks like it was a bad decision. I’ve got to live with it, get over it and make sure it never happens again.”
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A 20-homer season in 2000--when he was just 21--fueled expectations that Adrian Beltre would develop into one of baseball’s best young power hitters, but the Dodger third baseman has only two homers this season and has gone 123 at-bats without a homer, dating to April 18.
“Our expectations of him were set so high because he reached the big leagues at such a young age, but the fact remains that he’s 23, and that’s not old,” Tracy said. “We label guys too quickly.... Before you become a power hitter in the big leagues you have to have discipline in the strike zone.”
TODAY
DODGERS’
KAZUHISA ISHII
(6-1, 2.70 ERA)
vs.
BREWERS’
GLENDON RUSCH
(3-3, 3.73 ERA)
Miller Park, Milwaukee, 10 a.m.
Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).
Update--The Brewers entered Wednesday night’s game batting .185 against left-handers, and they are 2-6 against left-handed starters, which should give Ishii an edge. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are batting .289 against left-handers and are 8-1 against left-handed starters, so that should give them an edge against Rusch. Ishii has a slightly strained right hip, but he played long toss Tuesday and declared himself fit to start.
