Last night's game, and a bit of a Juan Francisco rant

When we lose, the little things bug me.

• Juan Francisco made two errors, came close to making another and struck out 3 times. He did have a good game Friday, but, for the most part, he has been awful for a month now, and I don't know how much longer we can keep running him out there. He makes errors at the same rate that Edwin was at third base and he doesn't have the potential Edwin had. I'd much rather have Munenori Kawasaki and Steve Tolleson platoon at second base then keep running Juan out there. Keep Juan as a bench player, a power threat off the bench, but stop playing him at third.
• Sending Jose Bautista home in the 8th inning, when he wasn't the tying run, was just stupid. It didn't look any smarter when Brett Lawrie followed with what would have been the game tying single. When the offense is as bad as ours has been for the last few weeks, we can't be stupid on the base paths. Now, perhaps Rivera had the stop sign up, and Bautista ran through it, or perhaps Bautista couldn't have been stopped anyway, so Rivera just waved him through....Jose has made many aggressive base running mistakes, maybe this one is his fault and not Rivera's. If so I'll apologize. But, if Rivera sent him, someone has to talk to him. Make sure he understand the game situation when he is out on the field.
• R.A. Dickey and Adam Lind both left the game with injuries. Lind fouled a ball off his foot, he has had X-rays and nothing is broken but they won't know until this morning if he'll have to miss a few games. We don't have enough guys on the bench for him to be out. Dickey had a slight groin strain. He'll likely be ok for his next start. If not, maybe we'll see Deck McGuire?
• Dickey had a pretty good start. 2 earned runs, 6 hits 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 6.2 innings. Chad Jenkins did a good job in relief.
• I really wish we had a bench. We've played a lot of games, and some of the guys look tired. When guys aren't hitting, it would be good to be able to give a guy a day off to relax. I'd think a guy like Bautista, who plays all out all the time, could really use a day at DH. Same for Melky, Lawrie and a few of the other guys.

Brett Lawrie gets JoD, with a .131 WPA. Suckage goes to Cabrera (-.345), Gose (-.147) and Francisco (-.098, plus the errors). And give one to Rivera.