The San Diego Padres lost a heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 16 innings last night, and it felt like a microcosm of everything that's been going wrong with the team for a while.
To me, what was inexcusable was not double-switching in Stammen/Caratini for the 10th. Once Nola makes the final out in the ninth, you know he's the ghost-runner. So if you're gonna pinch-run for him anyway, plug Stammen into the 4 spot (which lets you use Cronenworth as the ghost-runner) and put Caratini 9th. Same outcome as they got, except (a) you might be able to use Stammen for 2 innings and (b) you still have Kim.
To me, what was inexcusable was not double-switching in Stammen/Caratini for the 10th. Once Nola makes the final out in the ninth, you know he's the ghost-runner. So if you're gonna pinch-run for him anyway, plug Stammen into the 4 spot (which lets you use Cronenworth as the ghost-runner) and put Caratini 9th. Same outcome as they got, except (a) you might be able to use Stammen for 2 innings and (b) you still have Kim.