Why is Mike Matheny pitching to David Ortiz?

[Auggie]

In his postgame news conference, Matheny was asked why Ortiz got pitches to hit. Again.

"We’re going to make tough pitches, and sometimes we get more of the plate than what we’re looking to get," said Matheny, who showed no regret for letting Ortiz swing away off Wainwright with first base open. "Right there, it was the idea of making it tough, and unfortunately he found the spot."

http://blog.sfgate.com/johnshea/2013/10/28/stunner-no-barry-bonds-treatment-for-david-ortiz-red-sox-beat-cardinals-in-game-5/

"Sometimes we get more of the plate than what we’re looking to get …"

IT'S CALLED AN INTENTIONAL WALK!!! THROW THE BALL OVER HIS HEAD!

Pin this WS loss on Matheny.

[KamaAina]

1. He wasn't

Wainwright was.

Point taken, though. If ever there was a time to walk Big Papi, it was there in St. Louis, with no Napoli to protect him in the order. Now they're screwn.

[Upton]

2. Matheny is right..

I disagree with walking someone in the 1st inning. Later on, sure. His big mistake was allowing a clearly struggling Wainwright to pitch to Ellsbury in the 7th..

[Auggie]

3. I sure wouldn't give Ortiz anything close to hit

.733 in the series. It's insane.

[KamaAina]

4. Why would the Cardinals pitch to Ortiz?

http://www.csnne.com/blog/standing-room-only/why-would-cardinals-pitch-ortiz

Because that’s true. Everything we’ve ever learned about baseball supports the hypothesis that it’s impossible for a player to get a hit, or just reach base, in every single at-bat. Not even “Joe” from Baseball Stars could pull that off. This past season, Ortiz only got on base 39 percent of the time, and while that was good for fourth in the American League, in the big picture, it was still 39 percent. He failed to reach more than 60 percent of the time; he succeeded less than four times for every 10 at-bats.

But of course, Ortiz entered last night having reached base in 12 of 16 World Series at-bats, including seven straight. He had eight total hits. He was batting .721. And all those numbers were under a bright, hot and bearded spotlight as he stepped to the plate in the first inning. Runner on second. First base wide open. Adam Wainwright on the mound....

Maybe that’s what they were thinking, and like I said, that’s probably the only line of reasoning that makes even a little sense. But while they were thinking that, the rest of the baseball world was thinking: “Naaah, they’ll never pitc—“

Wrong. Before you could even process the thought, Ortiz turned on a cutter, pulled it down the line past a decrepit Allen Craig and scored Dustin Pedroia to give Boston an immediate 1-0 advantage. It wasn’t the winning run, but the value of that hit reached far beyond the scoreboard.

[Auggie]

5. Batters and pitchers streak … traditional stat numbers can kill you in a short series

Ortiz is beyond hot. He should not have been pitched to.