The Fire Power of Clint Hurdle

The quote of the day, from Pirates pitcher Kevin Correia, on manager Clint Hurdle’s ejection from Sunday’s game:

“When a manager gets thrown out, sometimes it will fire you up a little bit,” Correia said. “But I don’t think that it did much today.”

Ouch.

Hurdle was booted in the bottom of the seventh while arguing the Angel Pagan catch/trap of Lyle Overbay’s long fly to the centerfield fence. At the time, the score was 1-0 Mets — it was still a tight ballgame, and at the time, that play was huge.

Maybe if Hurdle was a little more fiery and threw some stuff around the field, his Pirate players might have woken up and scored a few runs, rather than give up six in the final two frames. Or, maybe not.

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
  1. Josh Burton June 13, 2011 at 12:47 pm
    I think Hurdle did the right thing by being ejected but Correia is just sour about it because he completely blew up in the 7th. Maybe it just didn’t fire him up.
  2. Joe June 13, 2011 at 2:48 pm
    The Pirates didn’t have anyone on base and didn’t get anyone else on base in that inning after that catch; Capuano didn’t look like he was about done. I don’t know how “huge” that was.