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SPORTS Friday 1 November 2019
Hinch: "I'll have to live with" bullpen decision in Game 7

By KRISTIE RIEKEN going to help us win. He It was the second straight
AP Sports Writer was available, and I felt it night Harris surrendered
HOUSTON (AP) — Astros was a game that he was a home run after Rendon
manager AJ Hinch had op- going to come in had we took him deep for two
tions. tied it or taken the lead." runs in Houston's 7-2 loss in
There was Zack Greinke, a Harris was Hinch's man for Game 6. Harris hadn't al-
veteran ace showing his that seventh-inning spot. lowed a run this postseason
first signs of fatigue. Out in It's not hard to see why. before that shot.
the bullpen, Gerrit Cole was The right-hander had been Cole started throwing in the
watching. And of course, steady in the late innings all bullpen again in the eighth,
Will Harris was warming. season, posting a 1.50 ERA but by the ninth he was sit-
What came next, Hinch will in the regular season. And ting down again, wearing
contemplate for years. Hinch liked the matchups a jacket and staring emo-
"It's a decision I'll have to with Harris facing Kendrick tionless toward the field. He
live with," he said. and Asdrubal Cabrera — was simply a spectator to
After Greinke allowed a right-handed hitters who the last moments of an illus-
homer to Anthony Rendon figured to struggle with Har- trious 326-strikeout season
and walked Juan Soto, ris and his sharp breaking that could well earn him his
Hinch handed a 2-1 lead ball. first Cy Young — but that
to Harris in the seventh in- He just faltered at the worst didn't get him a ring.
ning of World Series Game possible time. "We just went over the
7. On Harris' second pitch, "I think I made a pretty game plan and he laid out
Howie Kendrick drove a good pitch," Harris said. "He the most advantageous
two-run, go-ahead homer just made a championship times to use me," Cole said. Houston Astros relief pitcher Will Harris throws during the seventh
off the right field foul pole play for a championship "And we didn't get to that inning of Game 7 of the baseball World Series against the Wash-
screen — a haymaker that team." position."q ington Nationals Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, in Houston.
Associated Press
stunned Houston in a 6-2
defeat that cost them the
chance at a second title in
two years.
"It's every reliever's night-
mare that I get a chance
to live," Harris said, his eyes
red-rimmed from the emo-
tional ending.
Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy
Young Award winner who
joined the Astros from Ari-
zona at the trade dead-
line, had looked strong
all night. He threw only 80
pitches, was just starting his
third turn through the order,
and Rendon's homer was
just his second hit allowed.
He played superb defense,
too.
And yet, out came Hinch.
"We asked him to do more
today than he had done,
and pitched deeper into
the game more than he
had done in the entire
month of October," Hinch
said. "I wanted to take him
out a bat or two early rath-
er than a bat or two late."
That was only half the deci-
sion that went so wrong.
Hinch could have turned to
Cole, a Cy Young Award
contender who won Game
5 on Sunday. Ready to go
on short rest, he was warm-
ing up earlier in the game
but had cooled off by the
seventh. He only left the
bullpen after the final out.
"I wasn't going to pitch him
unless we were going to win
the World Series and have
a lead," Hinch said. "He was