Starkey & Mueller

A very odd decision from Don Kelly last night that aided a Pirates loss to the Nationals. In a spot with the Pirates down 1 run and the bases loaded, Kelly chose to lift Brandon Lowe from the game in favor of Nick Yorke. Yorke proceeded to ground into a double play immediately. Lowe hit a home run earlier in the game, off a left-handed pitcher, but was taken out instead of facing one in that spot. To top it off, that spot in the order came up with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and Yorke popped out in foul ground with the tying and winning runs on-base. The guys thought the move was very similar to ones we would see from Derek Shelton in the past. Is there any defense to the decision? Mitch Keller didn’t have a good night, so we don’t want to leave him off the hook here.