Joe Maddon

“I want to take this moment, please, regarding this crazy stuff about leads and teams not trying to score runs,” Maddon said. “I did not take any exception when they stole on us last year in the eighth inning of the Division Series. … I didn’t take any, because our goal is to not permit them to score runs. Our goal is to score runs — the whole game. I mean, it’s always been the goal within the game of baseball. Apparently some of their guys on their bench did not like that. I really wish they would roll back the tape and look at that more specifically.”  (By Bill Chastain / MLB.com  Tempers flare in Rays-Red Sox series finale 5/25/2014)

I am in no way implying that the Cincinnati Reds sat on their lead. Over the years I have seen thousands of games in person and on TV has seen managers pulling players to give them a rest, and stop doing the little things, stealing a base, and move runners up when they have a big lead. All because of an unwritten rule do not show up the other team. When I see this happening, I always think of the Yankee announcers throughout the years saying “No lead is safe in Fenway Park.”

In baseball, the beauty of the game is there’s no clock and until that 27th out is recorded anything can happen and last night it did…