I don't mean Ron Washington's facial features, which have seemed impossibly contorted since he played short for the Tribe in '88. I reference leaving Neftali Feliz to play catch in the 'pen rather than extinguish a wildfire in the 8th inning. It took me the last 12 hours to calm down enough to even write this. And herein lies the fundamental problem with the closer philosophy. I know that the last 3 outs outs are often the toughest to get. I understand that closers require a rare combination of ability and mentality. I can recognize that this fragile balance should not be upset. But, for the love of all that is holy, there aren't so many tomorrows left. Feliz got three 6 out saves this year, 2 of them in August! Somewhere down in the pit of his stomach Ronnie White Tiger was afraid of getting second guessed and lambasted in the media for straying from the status quo. Instead of making a smart baseball decision, the type that lead teams to championships, Washington floundered in the moment (see Mike Hargrove). The game sped up on him and he reacted with a regular season response. No disrespect to the Rangers set-up men, they'd been outstanding all year, but this is October, a time for big players to make big plays. And Ron Washington took the ball out of his best reliever's hand. He deserved to lose, but his team did not.
