The lovefest for Bochy over here is the kind of thing that could only happen during a winning streak. Well, not that specific lovefest. That one has to do with Feliz getting less at-bats. That's the kind of lovefest that could happen during a nuclear holocaust.
But everything is a positive during a winning streak. During the losing streak, Bochy was driving me insane with his pinch-hitting moves. Niekro against righties. Eliezer against anyone. More losses, and every single problem with the Giants would have been projected onto the pinch-hitting decisions of Bruce Bochy. The pinch-hitting decisions of Bruce Bochy will kill us all! To arms!
With the winning streak, though, I'm able to exclaim my appreciation with how Bruce Bochy has used Jack Taschner. Bochy probably didn't know much about Taschner before coming over to the Giants, though he had to know something about Taschner's 8.38 ERA in 2006. He probably didn't know the details down to the decimal point, but he had to know the guy struggled in limited action. Bochy didn't care. He liked what he saw from Taschner in the spring, thought Taschner could be ready for a setup job, and plopped the lefty in the first tight situation that came up. Adrian Gonzalez hit a home run off Taschner that probably melted during reentry. Whoops.
Most managers would have freaked out. A young reliever with limited experience who gives up a game-altering homer is a young reliever who doesn't see any more action after the fifth inning. Bochy saw the big picture, though, and recognized that Taschner was making the non-Adrian lefties look uncomfortable at the plate. He kept throwing Taschner out there, and everyone was rewarded when Taschner was able to get Luis Gonzalez to ground into a double play.
Taschner isn't perfect. He walks too many guys, and that lack of control also manifests itself with pitches left over the heart of the plate. But he has been a strikeout machine in AAA, and he has a better chance to dominate than Steve Kline, who usually has a great chance of being Steve Kline. I just like that Bochy didn't forsake him after one bad outing.
Open winning streak lovefest thread, not necessarily Bochy-related.