Dusty Baker Sends Aaron Harang Back Out After 2-Hour Rain Delay

In my head, whenever I write about Dusty Baker, I imagine him to be a character called, "Dusty Baker, Baseball Alchemist." This has a lot to do with his wildly-reasoned argument from the early spring that a whole bunch of players in Cincinnati would play well because they were once high draft picks. I just have the general feeling that Baker feels like there's some secret recipe to winning that if he follows it, eventually success will find him and the Reds.

One of those ingredients must be getting his starting pitcher through five innings at any and all costs. Yesterday afternoon/evening, he sent Aaron Harang back out to the mound to finish the fifth inning after a rain delay that lasted more than two hours. Harang only pitched to one batter after the delay and recorded a strikeout of Humberto Quintero to qualify for the win.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Fay posted Baker's reasoning on his blog last night:

"I'm just glad the delay wasn't any longer," Baker said. "He wanted it badly. He wanted very badly."

Baker felt the risk was minimal.

"As long as kept throwing," Baker said. "There's a risk every time a guy goes out there. We were concerned. He wanted the game and he deserved a chance to go get that."

I get that Baker wanted to show faith in one of his veterans, but Harang threw 83 pitches before the delay, then kept throwing through the delay to stay loose, then had to warm up again when the game re-started, and finally, he needed eight pitches to strike out Quintero, at which point he was shelved for the night.

Baker might have felt the risk was minimal, but I'm not sure anyone in their right mind would agree with him. He put a ton of extra and unnecessary stress on the arm of one of his best pitchers, just so that pitcher could pick up a cosmetic counting stat that he "wanted badly." Of course, the Reds are only 2 1/2 games out of first place, so hey, here's to baseball alchemy.

Somewhere, Mark Prior is screaming.