As we know, your decisions look their best as a coach when players execute per the plan. But coaches also have to make their moves strategically in optimal spots. Baseball personnel moves in-game have a finite limit. Bench depth is four players to start a game, and bullpen moves have at most eight moves.

Last night’s Washington Nationals game had a mix of moves that worked and did not work. The moves that worked were the bullpen moves. None of the bench moves worked. A key stolen base attempt didn’t work.

The first move was to pull starter Andrew Alvarez at 4 2/3 innings and replace him with Brad Lord with a 3-1 deficit. The bullpen threw a combined zero, and that score held in the Nats’ loss at 3-1.

The next move that manager Blake Butera made seemed like a smart move in the bottom of the 5ᵗʰ inning. Jacob Young led-off the inning with a double. The Rockies manager immediately called in a lefty reliever to face CJ Abrams who struck out for the first out of the inning. Butera pinch-hit righty Andres Chaparro for the lefty Abimelec Ortiz. With the righty protection, Young promptly stole 3ʳᵈ base. A productive out would score Young — but Chaparro struck out. Smart move by Butera was not executed by Chaparro.

The Chaparro move would leave Butera with three bench players remaining: Keibert Ruiz, Jose Tena, and Andrew Pinckney. This is where things got interesting for the Nats who are playing without their best player, James Wood. That makes the personnel much different in the lineup depth.

In the bottom of the 6ᵗʰ inning, Daylen Lile led-off with a single. The Rockies manager immediately brought in righty Jimmy Herget to face Brady House. And House smashed and outside slider in a 2-0 count to the high wall to the oppo side 372 feet to take the right fielder to the wall and with a lead — the ball was caught. In Nats Park, not a home run. In seven other stadiums, that would be a home run. Just a long out here. The next batter, Jorbit Vivas chased two balls outside the zone, and popped up for the second out of the inning.

This is where the game had another turning point with two outs and Harry Ford stepping into the batter’s box, and Nasim Nunez would move to the on-deck circle. Let’s discuss Ford. His bat has been nearly non-existent since his first two games in Sacramento. Since then, he is batting .160 with a .576 OPS. The chance of Ford getting a hit off of a right-handed pitcher? For the season, he is hitting .111 against righties. So the chance of Ford getting a hit was between slim-and-none. What you want to do is clear Ford’s spot in the lineup to get to the 7ᵗʰ inning where you would be guaranteed to get Jacob Young and CJ Abrams up with Nunez leading off.

But here was another mistake, Lile attempted to steal second base and was thrown out. He is a 68 percent base stealer and has been picked-off twice this season. Who called for the code red steal? Or did Lile steal on his own? In a small sample size, Ford does hit better in RISP spots, but he hits even better with a runner on first base at .273 — YES .273 (again, small sample size). The result of the caught stealing would be that Ford would lead-off in the 7ᵗʰ inning and CJ Abrams would not be guaranteed to bat in that inning.

So Ford would groundout promptly on the first pitch in the 7ᵗʰ inning. Nunez would strikeout on three pitches (chasing strike three), and this is where Butera made another move. With two outs and bases empty in a low lev and low impact spot, Butera went to Jose Tena to pinch-hit for the Nats’ best hitter in the second half of the season. Yes, Jacob Young is batting .322 since July 18ᵗʰ to lead the Nats. The next closest in batting average is Keibert Ruiz at .300.

Why burn Tena there? He was your best pinch-hit power hitter and batting him in the 7ᵗʰ inning might not even guarantee that he would bat again in the game. By losing Young who doubled in his previous at-bat off a right-handed pitcher, you also weaken your defense and speed. This was just a bad move by Butera and as you figured, Tena would groundout weakly on the first pitch. Abrams would be left in the on-deck circle. Now the bench would be down to only Ruiz and Pinckney.

In the bottom of the 8ᵗʰ inning, Colorado would bring in the lefty, Brennan Bernardino, to face Abrams. And unfortunately Abrams would strikeout. The lefty on righty would setup Andres Chaparro but he chased two out of the zone and hit a weak line-out to left field. Dylan Crews would hit a single and Lile represented the tying run in a lefty-lefty matchup. In a 2-2 count, Lile chased strike 3 in the right-handers batting box. And that would leave Brady House stranded in the on-deck circle.

The game remained at 3-1 to the bottom of the 9ᵗʰ inning. Due ups were House, Vivas, and Ford. They would have to face Colorado’s closer, Jordan Romano. He got House and Vivas on groundouts, and somehow, Romano walked Ford like he was a power hitter. That allowed Butera to go to Keibert Ruiz as the pinch-hitter for Nunez. And Ruiz got a center cut slider on the first pitch and flew out. He just missed it. The story of the game.

You might read this and say that I am playing armchair manager/coach. Truth is if you follow the in-game comments, I called each move from the steal attempt to the Tena pinch-hit move before, during, and after. Again, great and bold move bringing in Chaparro in the 5ᵗʰ inning, and he did not execute. Every move after that was questionable. The Nats would go 0-6 in the game, and the only run scored was early in the game on a Lile home run.

Just another frustrating loss. Starter Andrew Alvarez made some mistakes, but with the bullpen pitching zeroes, you’d hope the Nats could score more than Colorado’s three runs. It was not meant to be. But at some point, Butera might want to rethink the moves he makes.