The St. Louis Cardinals suffered a painful defeat to the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, losing 5-4 on left-handed reliever Randy Choate's throwing error in 10th inning. Naturally, such a stinging defeat will lead to instant frustration and immediate second-guessing, especially now, in October, where every play and result is magnified. With that said, though, we do not expect to see second-guessing and criticism popping up pop in the Twitter feed of one of the players who moments earlier was on the field.
That was the bizarre case on Tuesday, as just minutes after Choate's throw sailed up the first-base line and Brandon Crawford raced around with the winning run, a series of retweets showed up in the timeline of Cardinals reliever Seth Maness, and it turns out it was his supportive yet overzealous girlfriend who was responsible.
(Cole Claybourn)
Maness, who needed only six pitches to throw a perfect ninth inning, likely would have been available for a second inning based on that workload. However, his spot in the order was due up first in the 10th, so he was lifted for pinch-hitter Peter Bourjos.
Obviously, manager Mike Matheny was looking ahead the entire way, knowing that left-handed hitter Brandon Crawford was looming. Regardless of the inning, he was going to his left-handed veteran Choate to face Crawford. It just worked out that Maness was effective and efficient, allowing him to pinch-hit with a speed guy in Bourjos leading off the 10th rather than double switch an inning earlier.
To Matheny, the situation liked played out he'd envisioned it, aside from the outcome. Given the outcome though, with Choate failing to retire any of the three batters he faced and committing the game-ending error, the armchair managers had their ammunition. And they also had an unexpected source spreading their message.
Cole Claybourn of Cards Conclave confirmed the account behind the retweets was in fact Maness' verified account and not a fake.
Claybourn also tracked a tweet from Maness' girlfriend admitting to retweeting under the reliever's account.
(Cole Claybourn)
All of the retweets have since been deleted, but obviously they existed long enough to be noticed and to make things awkward for Maness.
Obviously, the team has more pressing concerns right now, like finding a way to bounce back in Game 4. It certainly won't cost Maness playing time or anything of that nature, and when the season ends, it may even get a chuckle out of Matheny and others. But right now it's a cringe worthy development that will require several awkward conversation involving Maness, most notably with a signficant other whose support is obviously undying, but perhaps in need of being restrained.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
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