Terry Collins’ wife criticized his use of Jeurys Familia in World Series Game 4
When you’re a major league manager, you know criticism will be coming from every angle when a big decision goes haywire. That’s especially true in the World Series, where the spotlight is the brightest and everyone on the outside is looking in with a microscope.
New York Mets skipper Terry Collins had one of those rough moments in his team’s 5-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals in Game 4 of the World Series, and he’s definitely been hearing about it from every direction in the aftermath. That includes from the seat right next to him on the car ride home, where his wife, Debbie, criticized his use of closer Jeurys Familia.
[Related: Terry Collins’ curious usage of Jeurys Familia cost the Mets Game 4]
Here’s the situation in question:
With New York holding a one run lead in the eighth inning, Collins elected to use set up Tyler Clippard to begin the inning, but made sure he had Familia ready in case a situation popped it.
A situation popped up alright. Clippard ended up walking Ben Zobrist and Lorenzo Cain to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. That’s when Collins turned to Familia, but the Mets were already vulnerable to the Royals unrelenting style of play. One batter later, Kansas City took full of advantage of the situaition thanks largely to an error from Daniel Murphy, and then went on to steal the game.
The general feeling is that if Collins was going to have Familia ready, he should have used him to start the inning for a six-out save chance like he did during Game 5 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. That would have allowed Familia to start from a clean slate, which is obviously a more comfortable situation, and allowed him to avoid to Clippard, who has been shaky at times during the postseason.
That’s how Collins’ wife saw it as well, and she let him know.
“I brought [Familia] in Los Angeles for six outs, and you guys crucified me. So now I didn’t bring him in, and I’m getting crucified because I didn’t bring him in. But that’s the nature of the beast around here, that’s what it’s all about. This game’s about what you should have done when something didn’t work.
“Debbie told me that on the way home, ‘Why didn’t you bring in Familia last night?’ I said, ‘Where were you when the decision was being made?’ ‘I was getting a taco.’ So it’s really simple, but it’s not. Because we know we’ve got to play tonight, and if he goes two last night, that’s back-to-back and I probably may not have him tonight, and tonight may have been the biggest turnaround. We don’t know.”
The New York media and Mets fans are a tough enough crowd. When you can’t even escape it at home, that’s when you know you’ve messed something up.
Credit Collins though, while it was a potential season-changing moment for his team and one of the most important decisions in his managerial career, at least he was able to find some humor in it. That would explain how he’s managed to maintain his sanity throughout his 11 seasons as a manager with the Angels and Mets.
[Five key moments from the Royals’ 5-3 victory in World Series Game 4]
If the Mets can’t rally from a 3-1 deficit to win the series though, we’re sure he’ll replay the decision to use Familia with a six-run lead in Game 3, his usage in Game 4 and that conversation with his wife his in his mind several times over the next few months.
Of course, if Murphy scoops up that grounder and throws out the runner, that probably changes everything too. It goes to show that you really don’t know how it will go as a manager, and that sometimes even good decisions can go bad due to unforseen reasons. With that in mind, hopefully Collins doesn’t beat himself up too much. He still has plenty of big decisions to make.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
