Showalter Won’t Second-Guess Himself

Buck Showalter, the Arizona Diamondback manager, took a small measure of criticism and questioning for failing to employ closer Matt Mantei rather than Bobby Chouinard after Randy Johnson left with the bases loaded and the score tied, 4-4, in the ninth inning of Game 1, but Showalter was merely following his regular season form.

Edgardo Alfonzo brought out the critics when he slugged a two-out grand slam to break the tie and propel the New York Mets to an 8-4 victory. Mantei was warming up in the bullpen, but Showalter said, “[Chouinard] has been pitching as well as anybody in our bullpen and he’s done a great job with inherited runners. He’s been the best we have in that situation. If we’d had a base open we could have considered [Mantei], but you try to put guys in a role in which they’re comfortable and familiar.’

Mantei was the key acquisition of the Diamondback summer. He came from the Florida Marlins on July 10 and converted 22 of 27 save opportunities, holding opponents to a .189 average, but he did not make an appearance in which there was a runner on base when he came to the mound.

Chouinard, a 27-year-old right-hander who was up previously with Oakland and Milwaukee, was 5-2 with a 2.28 earned-run average in 32 appearances and had allowed only five of the 24 runners he inherited to score. He had stranded 16 of the last 17 he inherited before Alfonzo hit only the fourth homer Chouinard has given up in 41 innings this year.

Showalter took the questioning well, calling it part of the business. “I’m glad people are talking about baseball and the Diamondbacks,” he said.

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Most baseball people favor expanding the division series from five to seven games, including Showalter.

“If anything, it should be the opposite,” he said, meaning the division series and league championship series should be seven games, with the World Series five. “Then you’d have a better chance of knowing the best teams had reached the World Series.”

The point being that even the best team can go flat for a game or two of a five-game series and be eliminated from the playoffs.

Showalter said he understood the calendar limits “as far as ending the season. Otherwise we’d go right from the end of the season to the winter meetings and spring training. Of course, I’d welcome that.”

The Diamondbacks won 100 games. Would an early elimination erase the impact of that?

“Certainly 100 wins doesn’t go away,” Showalter said, “but I don’t think anybody would sit here and tell you it wouldn’t put a damper on the season. It certainly wouldn’t mean as much if we don’t advance in the playoffs.”