In the history of baseball, the act Mike Scioscia executed Monday has been tried thousands of times over. He took a struggling hitter, first baseman C.J. Cron, and dropped him three spots in the lineup.
Cron, the 26-year-old who carried a .100 average into this week's four-game series against the Chicago White Sox, had hit fifth against the six previous left-handers the Angels faced this season. Monday night, he hit eighth.
The move's basis in evidence is tenuous. Is an indeterminate amount of pressure really lessened by a couple more minutes of waiting?