How Smart Is Ron Washington?
I’m not smart enough to know whether Ron Washington is admirably flexible or painfully indecisive.
In Game 1 of this Division Series, Craig Gentry started in left field and Josh Hamilton in center field, even though Hamilton spent most of the regular season in left field and Gentry had started just once in left.
Washington’s reasoning, we were told, was that he would be playing Hamilton in center field in most of the games, and he didn’t want him shifting back and forth. So he might as well play Hamilton in center field in all the games.
Well, that didn’t last long. Gentry looked uncomfortable in left field in Game 1. And in Game 2, after Gentry entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth inning, he took his place in center field in the seventh, with Hamilton shifting to left.
This is probably how Washington should have been doing it all along. But he seems to have realized his mistake before it cost him anything.
