Getting night off makes slumping Wright restless
David Wright didn't get a chance to hit last night, getting an unrequested night off from manager Jerry Manuel. Credit: AP
WASHINGTON - David Wright didn't go full Hanley Ramirez on Jerry Manuel Wednesday when the manager told him to take a seat against the Nationals. But Wright clearly wasn't thrilled by the decision, either.
Wright said after Tuesday's loss in Atlanta that it would be "one of the worst things" to give him the night off, despite his three strikeouts and a throwing error that decided the game in the ninth. Manuel did it anyway, even with Wright's history of success against Livan Hernandez, and that seemed to irritate the third baseman.
"It's Jerry's decision,'' Wright said. "The important thing is to win, and if he feels [Fernando] Tatis gives us the best chance to do that tonight, I'm all for it."
Ouch. Wright wasn't giving himself much credit, even if he was leading the majors with 55 strikeouts. Manuel insisted this move was about the bigger picture, and he laughed at a comparison with the Ramirez-Fredi Gonzalez feud in Florida.
"He didn't give you my 55 at-bats?" said Manuel, who actually had 127 in the majors. "That I had 55 at-bats and five hits in the big leagues, what do I know about hitting? He didn't give you that one? That's what he told me. I'm glad he didn't give you all that one."
Manuel was so determined to give Wright a break that he refused to be swayed by his stats against Hernandez: 12-for-36 (.333), four homers and 10 RBIs.
"I'm not going to start throwing numbers around because he's probably taken all that into account, I'm sure," Wright said. "It's about winning games. This isn't about trying to make me feel good about myself."
But it's unlikely the team would win regularly without a significant contribution from him.
"We need him back to where he can be," Manuel said. "I keep telling these guys, every time I give one guy a day off, the next day he hits a home run. You want the strikeouts today or you want a home run tomorrow?"
Wright has had at least one strikeout in each of his last 15 games, including 27 in 57 at-bats during that streak. But a night on the bench must have seemed more excruciating than a bad day in the field.
"I don't ever feel like I need a day," he said. "But when you manage and coach, you get to see it from a different perspective. If they feel like this is what I need and what the team needs, I'm all about it."
