The man in front of Dusty Baker on the all-time managerial wins leaderboard is Bruce Bochy at 22 wins ahead of Baker. With 66 more wins, Baker is assured of being in the Top 15 in managerial wins where every retired manager is in the Hall-of-Fame except for Gene Mauch. Some might say you need a World Series title to make it to the HOF as a manager, but Ralph Houk won 1,619 games as a manager and 2 World Series, and he still is not in the Hall of Fame. For retired managers in the Top 25 in career wins, only Leyland and Houk are not in the Hall of Fame as managers who have won at least one World Series, but expect Leyland will make it when he is eligible shortly for enshrinement.
Then you look at the managers behind Dusty Baker in wins who are in the Hall-of-Fame that never won a World Series like Al Lopez, Wilbert Robinson, Ned Hanlon, and Frank Selee.
Dusty Baker can earn his 100th win tonight as the manager of the Washington Nationals. Baker got one of the more unusual wins of his career last night when the Nationals committed 4 fielding errors, but still managed to win the game.
It was kind of an ugly game, but when you score it will cure most of the ills,” Dusty Baker said after the game. The ills were those four errors plus two additional plays not ruled as errors.
Baseball is a funny game. You win some you shouldn’t and lose some you shouldn’t. It all seems to even out, but good fundamental baseball should be an everyday part of the game.
Tonight the Nationals start Gio Gonzalez and the Cardinals go with Lance Lynn.
As it turns out, Stephen Drew does not get a rest day, and it is Anthony Rendon who gets the day off.
St. Louis Cardinals at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, ESPN, FOX Sports Midwest, MLB.TV
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Adam Eaton CF
- Wilmer Difo SS
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Stephen Drew 3B
- Matt Wieters C
- Gio Gonzalez LHP
