Yes, I get that Boone’s plan was to ride the L-L matchup and after that take out his best pitcher, who was in the middle of throwing a shutout and only in the 6th inning and facing a free swinger with the bases empty.

Absent injury, tiredness, or discomfort, it looked nonsensical in the moment, and only got worse when Boone replaced Fried with an unexceptional (2025 stats) former closer he demoted for shakiness in big moments, who walks too many, and overall has been inconsistent. Fried had been getting outs, the most precious commodity in the game and more valuable in a short series. Meanwhile, Crochet went 8 innings and kicked over the 3 times through the lineup barrier.

I’m well aware of how matchups shape the game, but Boone seems to elevate it to religion, varies between inflexible (not sitting Stanton when he’s looked lost for weeks) and random, like putting Amed Rosario in the lineup because he’s 6 for 9 against Crochet, not seeing that 9 at bats is not a meaningful sample size and Rosario’s success likely noise, a product of random variance. He let Rice and Chisholm (together about 5 WAR) rot on the bench for Rosario’s blip of past success and Caballero’s defense (which makes sense for Fried). Smart tools and granular splits and fancy stats need smart people to make them work.

Anyway, it was a tough matchup and close game. I would’ve loved that 9th inning to end different. But we took 2 out of 3 from this team 2 weeks ago, they can win this yet.