Joel Sherman

Joel Sherman

MLB

Managers must be cold-blooded in October

DETROIT — It is October. The season is short, and so is patience. Managers who see the big picture all year see smaller and smaller in this month.

In April or May or June, sticking with a slumping, but core player often is rewarded in loyalty and production. But there is little or no time for that in October.

Will the slumping player break out today or push the whole team closer to vacation? If you remove him from the lineup are you sending a message of urgency to your clubhouse or panic? Do you risk trampling the spirits of players who have given you their hearts, souls and broken bodies for six months all because they got cold at the wrong time? October.

“No question it ties you up in knots,” Joe Torre said by phone from the NLCS, observing in his role as an MLB VP. “It’s difficult. But in the postseason, you look to win games not make friends. It is a cold analysis.”

The weather gets chillier and so does the decision-making.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland got frosty because he had an offense with six runs in the first three ALCS games, a lineup that was pretty much slumping top to bottom — but very much at the top with Austin Jackson — and a two-games-to-one deficit in the best-of-seven.

Jim LeylandGetty Images

Leyland considered removing Jackson altogether, and instead dropped him to eighth with his 18 strikeouts in 33 at-bats. Torii Hunter hit leadoff for the first time since July 1999, Miguel Cabrera second for the first time since June 2004.

The result was Detroit had more runs by the fourth inning then it had produced in the first three games en route to a 7-3 triumph Wednesday in Game 4 that knotted the ALCS. Leyland minimized his impact, credited the players instead for, in particular, capitalizing on errant Boston starter Jake Peavy.

But it was hard to ignore that Jackson’s stock rose with his lineup slot lowered. He reached in all four plate appearances: two hits, two walks, two RBIs. Hunter had an RBI double, Cabrera two RBI singles.

Every Tigers starter had either an RBI or a run except Prince Fielder, who was moved from cleanup to third. He now has no homers or RBIs in his last 16 postseason games — dating to last year’s ALCS Game 2. He is as cold in October 2013 as his father, Cecil, was hot in 1996, which is why I called Torre, who once had to disrespect his own first baseman in this month.

Tino Martinez had overcome the burden of replacing an icon, Don Mattingly, to lead the ’96 Yankees in RBIs. But in the first 11 postseason games, Martinez hit .205 with the Prince Fielder double zeroes — no homers, no RBIs. The World Series was switching to Atlanta. The NL city. No DH. Prince’s daddy — Big Daddy — was producing as the DH.

So Torre installed Cecil at first. Actually, for Games 3 and 4, against lefties Tom Glavine and Denny Neagle, Torre benched Martinez, Wade Boggs and Paul O’Neill. He returned O’Neill for Game 5, but only at the urging of bench coach Don Zimmer, who felt O’Neill had given so much, often on a bad hamstring, that he deserved another opportunity. The final out of a 1-0 Game 5 victory — with two on — was a gimpy O’Neill chasing down a Luis Polonia drive to deep right-center.

“You have to do what is in your heart,” Torre said. “The loyalty cannot be to the player. It has to be to the 25, to all the players. No question, it crushes you. These guys have given you everything all year. But you have to check the priority list and the priority is to win those games with what you think is your best lineup. You certainly don’t make knee-jerk decisions. You have a sleepless night the night before. But it is all business at this point of year.”

Leyland pondered these moves from his couch after Game 3 while watching the NLCS, woke and felt the same. He had hitting coach Lloyd McClendon text each player impacted so none would be surprised upon reaching the stadium.

“We had to do something,” Leyland said. “ I thought we had to shake it up a little bit.”

So he shook. Jackson had hit leadoff every game he had started since May 2, 2011. Leyland said he was doing his center fielder “a favor,” removing him from the insta-pressure of hitting first. But Leyland also didn’t mind a subliminal communication to the whole team: Time to wake up.

“You can say I’m nuts, you can say I’m dumb, you can say whatever you want,” Leyland said.

You can say his strategy worked. And Leyland promised to go with the same lineup for Thursday’s Game 5, stick with Prince Fielder third and hope Cecil’s son finally stirs. Meanwhile, Boston manager John Farrell left the impression he would have to shake up his slumping infield left side of Stephen Drew and Will Middlebrooks by inserting rookie Xavier Bogaerts, probably at third against righty Anibal Sanchez.

It is October, after all. The season and patience are shorter.