Brenly’s Stubbornness Is Arizona’s Downfall

The Angels and Minnesota Twins have definitely raised some eyebrows with their gutsy styles in the American League playoffs, but the biggest first-round eye-opener has been the dismal play of the defending World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks.

If Arizona loses today at St. Louis in its National League division series, the Diamondbacks’ season will be over thanks to a three-game sweep by the Cardinals and Manager Tony La Russa, who has out-managed Arizona’s Bob Brenly over the first two games of the series.

The Diamondback manager has turned Brenlyball into an art form. What is Brenlyball, you ask? It’s when a manager or coach thinks he or she is the smartest person in the world and is too stubborn to make changes for the sake of the team. The St. Louis Rams’ Mike Martz had a bad case of it in last season’s Super Bowl when he refused to give the ball more to Marshall Faulk against the New England Patriots.

With Brenly, it always seems to be personal. Remember last year’s dramatic World Series? That’s when Brenly stubbornly stuck with relief pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim and kept sending him to the mound against the New York Yankees, and it almost cost the Diamondbacks the title.

Brenly may not have been the one who gave up those dramatic late-inning home runs, but he seemed to take it personally when his moves were questioned.

“No one likes to get second-guessed,” former Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “When it happened to me, I always tried to make sure that I explained why I made the decision.”

The Diamondbacks knew going into the first-round matchup against the Cardinals that they were short-handed because of injuries. No manager ever wants to enter the playoffs without his big guns, but that’s exactly what Brenly faced with left fielder Luis Gonzalez, right fielder Danny Bautista and infielder Craig Counsell on the sidelines.

With key hitters out of the lineup, Brenly’s decision to sit Erubiel Durazo, who batted fourth for Arizona in last year’s World Series, just doesn’t make sense. Brenly should have found a way to get the most dangerous bat among the Diamondbacks on the field for the first two games, when Arizona managed only a combined three runs and was 0 for seven with runners in scoring position in Thursday’s 2-1 Game 2 loss at Arizona.

Brenly said Durazo isn’t playing in the outfield because he’s a liability, based on how he played there in a couple of games late in the season.

In Game 1 against St. Louis right-hander Matt Morris, Brenly opted to start Mark Grace at first, which is understandable, considering Grace’s track record. You can’t blame Brenly for not making offense a priority with Randy Johnson pitching. But Johnson ended up getting bombed in a 12-2 loss.

With a day off before Game 2, Brenly made a couple of changes against left-hander Chuck Finley, but none of them involved Durazo, who may not hit left-handers well (.222 batting average), but two of his nine hits against them this season were home runs.

Game 2 was a nail-biter, with the Diamondbacks desperate for runs to support starting pitcher Curt Schilling, who gave up seven hits, struck out seven and walked one. Brenly desperately needed a big bat in the lineup but still chose to start Greg Colbrunn, who had only 10 home runs and 27 runs batted in this season, at first base and Mark Little in left field, even though the weak-hitting outfielder hit .208 during the regular season.

Brenly’s decision not to play Durazo, who finished tied for third on the team in home runs during the season despite appearing in only 76 games, came back to haunt him in the first inning of Game 2. The Diamondbacks had runners at first and second with one out, but Finley struck out Matt Williams and Steve Finley to end the threat.

That threat that would have been a little more potent if Durazo, who batted .333 in the playoffs last year, had a chance to hit.

Now, to remain alive in its bid for consecutive championships, Arizona must overcome a 2-0 deficit, something no National League team has done since the start of the division series in 1995.

Brenly doesn’t plan to start Durazo today in Game 3 against St. Louis right-hander Andy Benes because he still considers him a liability in the field. Grace will get the nod while Durazo sits again.

“At playoff time, there’s a premium on pitching and defense,” Brenly said. “Not meant as a slight to Ruby, but certainly there are very few defensive first basemen out there as good as Mark Grace ... and the very positive byproduct of that is that we have a very dangerous left-handed bat available to use off the bench in Durazo.

“At this point, Durazo will only appear in right field in an extreme emergency.”

An emergency? The Diamondbacks can only hope that Brenlyball is right this time or they’ll be dusting off their golf clubs this weekend.

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Running Out of Cards

Because of injuries to left fielder Luis Gonzalez, right fielder Danny Bautista and infielder Craig Counsell, Arizona Diamondback Manager Bob Brenly was forced to shuffle his lineup in the National League division series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Down 0-2 in the best-of-five series heading into today’s game in St. Louis, Brenly is searching for a spark on offense but says he will not sacrifice a sound glove for a solid bat. A look at this year’s and last year’s Diamondback starting lineup against the Cardinals in the playoffs:

*--* 2002 LINEUP IN PLAYOFFS VS. CARDINALS Pos Player Avg Shortstop Tony Womack 222 Second baseman Junior Spivey 200 Center fielder Steve Finley 167 First baseman Mark Grace 250 Third baseman Matt Williams 125 Right fielder Quinton McCracken 375 Left fielder David Dellucci 333 Catcher Damian Miller 500 2001 LINEUP IN PLAYOFFS VS. CARDINALS Pos Player Avg Shortstop Tony Womack 294 Second baseman Craig Counsell 188 Left fielder Luis Gonzalez 263 Right fielder Reggie Sanders 357 Center fielder Steve Finley 421 First baseman Mark Grace 214 Third baseman Matt Williams 063 Catcher Damian Miller 267

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