Matheny shifts on using closer in tied road game

MILWAUKEE — Left to justify his decision to turn to a rusty Michael Wacha instead of a ready Trevor Rosenthal in the bottom of the ninth of a tied National League Championship Series contest two Octobers ago, manager Mike Matheny stuck to a script that had long been accepted.

“We can’t,” Matheny explained, “bring him into a tie-game situation when we’re on the road.”

Rosenthal, of course, never got to pitch that night in San Francisco as Travis Ishikawa sent the Giants to the World Series the minute he crushed one of Wacha’s fastballs.

But what Matheny was so hesitant to do then has become his preference now. Tuesday marked the third time in the team’s last four road series that he summoned closer Seung Hwan Oh in to pitch the bottom of the ninth in a tie game on the road. In Tuesday’s case, Oh’s scoreless appearance set up a 2-1, 10-inning win.

It’s part of what Matheny described as “an evolving philosophy.”

“You say, OK, we have our best pitcher … and do we get to that next inning if we don’t pitch him in that inning?” Matheny explained. “You have, statistically, your best arm down there ready to go and their best part of the lineup. I think there are a lot of arguments, at least that I have in my own mind, that lead me toward giving [Oh] a chance to get us through that. When the game ends and you still have him sitting down there …

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