He is on a hot streak in the postseason. Every move he makes is working. Last night in game 5 I thought he was pulling the starting arm, Garcia, too early. I thought Garcia could get out of a jam and save the pen, which has been worked hard. Dotel comes in and puts the fire out and the St. Louis pen pitches great baseball the rest of the way. Earlier, he bunted his #8 hitter, Punto, with runners on 1st and 2nd. I just knew he would let him try to drive a run in with the pitcher on deck. The pitcher comes up, puts the ball in play, and the Red Birds get a run. MLB Network mentioned that La Russa may have known his pitcher had a good chance of putting the ball in play, because the Brewer's starting arm, Greinke, had produced only one swing and miss all night up to that point. In game #4 he starts Allen in the outfield due to Lance Berkman having poor career numbers against lefty, Randy Wolf. I would have probably still had Berkman in the lineup, because he returned to form in 2011 and I feel you have to trust your best players to come through, but La Russa's call worked, as Allen hit a bomb. I do not know if I have seen a manager be on this kind of roll, while being almost unorthodox in his managerial decisions. Their bullpen has almost pitched as many innings as their starting staff in the NLCS. Good stuff.
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