I bet Jerry Manuel isnt good at chess

I actually have no idea if Jerry Manuel is good at chess. He has been in baseball a long time and has probably spent many a rain delay in the clubhouse, so who knows, maybe he is. But I doubt it, and the reason is very simple - Jerry Manuel never seems to think 2 moves (batters/pitchers) ahead. And guess what, it really hurt the Mets last night (didn't kill them, they still had other chances and failed) on what was supposed to be a special evening.

Last night, with Mike Pelfrey failing against a very potent San Diego (read: last in majors last season) Jerry pulled him after five and went to Brian Stokes to start the 6th. At the time the game was tied 5-5 courtesy of a D-Wright homer and there was life in the park. I liked this move by Jerry. Stokes is a solid pitcher, capable of throwing a couple innings in a row, and you can't use Sean Green every single night. Stokes starts the inning against Luis Rodriguez (who?) and induces a fly ball to deep right. Church runs it down, but, being unfamiliar with the ridiculous walls of Citi, lets the ball tick off his glove. Error - Rodriguez on third, no outs. At this point I am fairly certain that run is coming home and am just hoping that it doesn't lead to a bigger inning.

Manuel - smartly - leaves Stokes in to face the next guy, Edgar Gonzalez (who?), who grounds out to DWright with the runner holding at third. So far Stokes is pitching well. The runner on was no fault of his and he buckled down and got the next guy without allowing Rodriquez to score, so what does Jerry do? In comes the lefty specialist, Feliciano, to match up against Jody Gerut (a slightly lesser who?). Feliciano, one of the many goats from last year, gets Gerut to ground out to Delgado and the runner holds at third. Am I feeling good about the Mets getting out of this inning without a run scored? Not a chance, because here comes David Eckstein, professional pest. Eckstein is a righty. Feliciano is notoriously weak against righties. First base is open. There are two outs. Does Jerry walk Eckstein to bring up the 62 year old washed up LEFTY Brian Giles? No. Does he bring in a righty to face Eckstein? No. End result - Feliciano manages to balk, scoring the run, and then prompty gives up a double to Eckstein that would have scored the run anyway.

So long post (probably too long) but here is the point (finally). Jerry pulled the righty, Stokes, to go to his lefty, Feliciano, so that he could match up against a lefty. He then left Feliciano in against a righty to give up the go ahead run. If he was ok allowing Feliciano face a righty, why not just sit on his hands and let Stokes face the lefty with one out, when you know he is already throwing the ball well. Either way the inning was apparently going to include a less than ideal Lefty-righty or righty-lefty matchup. Eckstein was only a batter away when Feliciano took the mound. Manuel should have recognized that and left Stokes in. A classic example of overmanaging and underthinking producing poor results.