First it was Rays manager Joe Maddon this past weekend, now it’s Cecil Cooper. There’s something about managerial lineup card screwups lately. Maddon had two of his players written in the lineup card as playing third base and thus he had to forfeit the DH spot. Much like Maddon, Astros manager Cecil Cooper fell victim to habit. Cooper made a couple of lineup switches, having usual leadoff man Kaz Matsui slide down to the second spot and bumping two-hitter Michael Bourn to lead off. Problem is although he told his guys about the switch, he apparently didn’t write down the lineup properly on the card:
Because the Astros presented plate umpire Eric Cooper with a lineup card featuring Matsui leading off and Bourn batting second, that move provided embarrassment after Bourn was brought back to the plate after leading off with a single to right.
Once Milwaukee manager Ken Macha questioned the lineup card to Eric Cooper, Matsui was called out with an assist to the catcher and then Bourn had to bat again.
Bourn proceeded to walk in his second at-bat, one that actually counted for his stats. The speedster then scored on a double by Lance Berkman. Luckily the Astros won the game 6-4 so the only things that suffered were the stats of Bourn (who didn’t get credit for his single) and Matsui (who was 0-for-1 without even batting). Weird story. Let’s just hope Cooper’s more careful from here on out. Seriously, do these managers need copy editors for their lineup cards or what?
