Earth to Ron Washington: It's Okay to Use Feliz Before the Ninth!

Neftali Feliz asking a higher power why

he continues to stay in the bullpen in

crucial non-save situations.

In game one of the ALCS the Yankees scored 5 runs in the 8th inning against the Texas Rangers middle relief corps of Darren Oliver, Darren O'Day, Clay Rapada, and Derek Holland en route to a comeback victory.

Last night, in game two of the World Series the Giants scored 7 runs off of Darren O'Day, Derek Holland, Mark Lowe, and Michael Kirkman, killing any chance the Rangers might have for a comeback in the 9th.

In both cases the Rangers best reliever, Neftali Feliz, was in the bullpen watching.

This isn't the regular season, it's the damn World Series, you want to go down with your best, not with your mediocre relievers who have been dece all year.

Two games can't tell you that Bruce Bochy is a better manager than Ron Washington but when Washington puts Vlad in the outfield he fittingly makes 2 errors.  When he's presented with a similar situation regarding using his closer he makes the same mistake again. When Bochy decides that Renteria should play SS (even after stinking over the last 2 years) he rips a homer and 3 RBI.   When it makes sense he'll think 'outside the box' and pitch Lincecum out of the pen in a deciding game or use Brian Wilson for more than one inning, and it works.  Just sayin'.

Cliff Lee apparently will not, under any circumstances, pitch on 3 days rest, but if the Rangers are down 3 games to 0, will Ron Washington really go down with Tommy Hunter on the mound?  If history tells us anything he won't mind losing with his (non) best on the field, and he'll regret it.