Perhaps last night John Maclaren made the first terrible move of his managerial career. The move I speak of was the decision to pull Felix Hernandez after six innings of work. Granted, Felix had given up eight hits and three walks over those six frames, yet, of the 99 pitches he threw, only one resulted in runs for Baltimore- a three run homer by Jay "monkey" Gibbons. That shot came with two outs, and after the ump let Gibbons stay alive after Hernandez could have easily had a called strike three on the upper inside corner. Oh well, tough luck.

My point to be made is that a team should throw their ace back out there when he hasn't even reached the century mark, and is still pitching somewhat effective (8 ground balls to 3 fly balls for Felix= effective). Or else why call him your ace? Let him get through one more inning, keep the game close, and let the cream of the bullpen do their stuff. Or....throw an unproven rookie into a tight situation and watch him give up 5 earned runs in a third of an inning, and watch the game quickly slip out of control.

I hope they second guessed themselves after that.

Beltre went 0-4, stranding three runners and grounding into a double play. Well, at least he didn't strike out.