3. Dusty's latest collapse . . .
You have to feel for Dusty Baker, the veteran Reds manager who took another kick in the gut in the postseason with a third epic collapse with a franchise inside of 11 years. The autopsies read like this:
• Up 5-0 with eight outs to go to win the 2002 World Series, Baker's Giants lose Game 6 to the Angels and then also lose Game 7.
• Up 3-0 with five outs to go to get to the 2003 World Series, Baker's Cubs lose Game 6 to the Florida Marlins, one of three straight losses after being up three 3-games-to-1.
• Tied 1-1 in the sixth inning of NLDS Game 3 -- with a no-hitter intact by his pitcher, Homer Bailey, and a sweep in play -- Baker's Reds become the first NL team to blow a 2-games-to-0 Division Series lead with three straight losses, all of them at home.
(I won't even bring up the year his Giants won 103 games and didn't make the postseason -- the last postseason without wild cards.)
The tally: Baker has played 10 games with a chance to close out a postseason series since 2002 World Series Game 6. His teams are 1-9 in those potential clinchers.
Baker is one of 20 managers to win more than 1,500 major league games. But only two of those 20 prolific winners have never won a World Series: Gene Mauch and Baker.



4. . . .and his role in it
What made the latest Baker loss, a 6-4 defeat to San Francisco in Game 5 on Thursday, so painful is that it called attention to Baker's acumen at running games. Three key moments in the game backfired on him:
• He stayed with Mat Latos too long. Latos came out humming fastballs for strikes. He threw only 16 balls to the first 15 batters. But Latos' reputation for immaturity came into play in a fateful fifth inning. Latos began sulking about some ball-and-strike calls -- so much so that home plate umpire Tom Hallion once walked halfway out to the mound apparently to tell him to cool it. Latos' body language worsened when Zack Cozart bobbled a grounder, costing the Reds an out. I watched Latos after Cozart fumbled with the ball; the pitcher dropped to a knee and stayed there with a pained look on his face, as if he couldn't believe it was happening to him -- rather than telling his teammate he would pick him up.
Latos was gone at that point. He didn't come close to throwing a strike on his next four pitches, walking Marco Scutaro. Pitching coach Brian Price walked out to the mound to try to settle Latos, but it was too late. The next batter, Pablo Sandoval, whistled a single past Cozart. Now the bases were loaded and Buster Posey was up. The sulking about the calls, the error, the walk, the visit, the single . . . it was a steep decline and there was every indication except bells, whistles, alarms and flares that Latos was not surviving this inning. But Baker allowed him to pitch to Posey. It was the at-bat that finished off the Reds. Posey crushed a grand slam with such force that Latos didn't even bother to turn around and watch it. He nearly walked off the field himself as Posey rounded the bases.
• With runners at first and second, no outs, a full count and trailing 6-3 to Matt Cain in the sixth, Baker sent the runners on the pitch. It was a reckless risk on many levels. For one, though the batter, Ryan Hanigan, did ground into a double play earlier in the game, Cain, as usual, was throwing more flyballs than groundballs. The situation did not call for protecting against a groundball with a high-risk play. Also, if Hanigan hits a short pop-up or line drive, it's a triple play and the inning is over.
Baker was counting on Hanigan making contact, but he should know this: Hanigan never grounded into a double play on a full count this year. However, he did strike out eight times in 34 at-bats with a full count -- almost a one in four chance.
Hanigan looked at strike three and Jay Bruce was thrown out.
"You have to push the envelope sometimes," said Bruce, "and it just didn't work out."
• He sent Xavier Paul, a lefthanded hitter, to bat against George Kontos to lead off the seventh inning, down 6-3. Giants manager Bruce Bochy countered with lefty Jeremy Affeldt. Baker had Miguel Cairo and Todd Frazier, both righthanded hitters, on his bench. But Baker left Paul in to bat against Affeldt. Paul was 0-for-3 this year against lefties. Repeat: just 0-for-3. Paul whiffed.
Baker essentially forfeited his leadoff spot in one of his last three innings of the season. Why was he saving players? Cairo, in fact, never did get in the game.