The Orioles manager went with his gut in the 6th inning.
Craig Albernaz knew exactly what the question was going to be when he walked back to the dugout Saturday night.
The Baltimore Orioles were in a scoreless game against the Boston Red Sox. Chris Bassitt was one out away from escaping a bases-loaded jam, but he was already up to 88 pitches. A pitching change would have made plenty of sense.
Instead, Albernaz left his veteran starter in.
The decision didn't work out. Eli White broke his bat on a sinker and still managed to lift a 69.1 mph flare into left field, scoring two runs and putting Baltimore in a hole it couldn't escape.
What made the moment linger for Albernaz was that he didn't think Bassitt had actually made a bad pitch.
"Those decisions keep you up at night," Albernaz said postgame via MASN. "Like, I'm not going to sleep tonight. That's part of it."
That wasn't Albernaz admitting he thought he had made the wrong call. If anything, the rest of his explanation showed why he was comfortable making it in the first place.
Bassitt had been throwing well throughout the night. He had escaped a bases-loaded situation earlier in the game, his pitch count was manageable and Baltimore's bullpen was already taxed. With White coming up, Albernaz also liked the matchup.
So he went to the mound, checked where Bassitt was physically and decided to let him finish the inning.
"I just want to make sure like empty the tank on this guy," Albernaz said. "And Bassett was up for it and stuff and he made a really good pitch, jammed them, broken bat."
That is what makes the result particularly difficult to separate from the decision itself.
White didn't square up the ball. He didn't drive a mistake into the gap. He broke his bat and somehow found enough space for the ball to fall in front of the left fielder.
Bassitt saw it similarly.
"I made my pitch. He made a good swing. I mean, that's literally it," Bassitt said postgame, via MASN's Roch Kubatko.
For Albernaz, that distinction matters because managers rarely get the luxury of judging a decision by its outcome alone.
"You make your decision and you go with it," Albernaz said. "You try to make the best decision at hand with all the information you have."
In some ways, the decision to stick with Bassitt came out of necessity for Albernaz.
Baltimore had already watched its pitching staff absorb a heavy workload, and pulling Bassitt at the first sign of danger would have meant asking the bullpen to cover even more innings. Albernaz wasn't willing to make that move simply because the situation looked uncomfortable.
The irony is that Bassitt ultimately gave Baltimore exactly what the manager was hoping for. He pitched 5 2/3 innings and kept the Orioles in a game that remained scoreless until the Red Sox finally broke through.
Now the Orioles send Kyle Bradish to the mound as they look to avoid a catastrophic four-game sweep at the hands of Boston.
