Decision Making Tonight (9th inning)

To sum it up, I have supported McLaren since he took over for 'Grover. I have stuck by some of the bonehead moves he has put forth. I have backed him up on some controversial stuff as well. However, today, I was screaming at the TV, punching anything in my way and pacing across my living room floor at his 9th inning decision making.

The Situation:

Vidro is at 2nd and Guillen at 1st. Raul Ibanez is at the plate with a left-handed pitcher on the mound. That situation alone should have said, "OK, Broussard and Ichiro: Rock/Paper/Scissors to see who gets to pinch-hit!" The pinch-hitter never came out of the dugout. Maybe they tied? Raul hits a slow grounder to Kinsler at 2nd, and a double play seemed at hand. However, thanks to a hard, hard slide by Guillen at 2nd Ibanez was able to make it to first, via no throw. OK. Runners at the corners, both insanely slow, 1 out. Beltre is up. Pinch-runner! OH CRAP IT'S NOT ICHIRO! In that situation, you need to put in your wheels. Ichiro is obviously the man. He's been caught stealing only twice this year in something rediculous like 38 attempts. If you want to stay out of the double play, you put Ichiro in. Betancourt comes in, first pitch double play game over Mariners lose! Mariners...lose?

Yes, McLaren, I hate to say it but you cost us today. Sure Beltre aided by 2 errors that led to all 5 runs scoring and swung at a bad pitch to end the game, but come on, use your freaking head! You got the best contact hitter in the MLB on your bench in Ichiro. OK, so don't use him as a hitter and use him as a pinch-runner. That's good enough right? WRONG. McLaren doesn't even pinch run him to keep us in the game.

I don't care if it was his day off or not, I really don't. If we're serious about being in the playoffs, we have to have a manager that wants us to get there. We should be beating teams like the Rangers, and not because our manager fails to see the obvious.