By the way, there were plenty examples of TC being handcuffed by short pen, but TC said Zimmerman-Byrdak not one. Zim has bad #s vs. LHP.
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) June 6, 2012
Evidence: speak. Here are Ryan Zimmerman’s career splits against left-handed and right-handed pitchers:
| I | Split | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs RHP as RHB | 2925 | 2635 | 729 | 163 | 10 | 103 | 405 | 244 | 518 | .277 | .338 | .463 | .802 | |
| vs LHP as RHB | 913 | 798 | 253 | 60 | 4 | 27 | 111 | 111 | 129 | .317 | .399 | .504 | .902 |
Ryan Zimmerman has been much better against lefties than righties over his career.
In Collins’ defense, Zimmerman was 5-25 against lefties in 2012 coming into last night’s game, the numbers I assume Collins looked at when deciding to allow Tim Byrdak to face Zimmerman. But Zimmerman also had 248 hits in his previous 773 against lefties in the seven seasons prior, with an on-base percentage over .400 and a slugging percentage over .500. So how much weight do you give 25 recent at-bats against the less-recent 773, particularly when the 773 at-bats follow the general trend in baseball that right-handed batters hit left-handed pitchers better? I’d lean towards the 773.
Patrick John Flood (blog) 
doh!
I’m not sure why they didn’t just go to Batista since he can handle both sides well, and then go to Byrdak is a jam came up in the 8th with LaRoche batting, then Beato or Fransisco for the 9th depending on the situation. At least that was my pregame thoughts as they were very short on who could go.
If this game is the result of a no-hitter, sign me up for two a month…