[shemp]

The opponent has 3 outs to your none and 6 to your 3. You are, in essence, not in a tie game, but trailing by some fraction of a run. There's a game tomorrow and there still may be a close situation in this one. And what you are bargaining for is spending your closer without a win.

It is, of course, your privilege to smugly scoff at the division of labour in the modern bullpen and the definition of the role of the closer, but it makes a lot of sense to hold out a closer in a tie game on the road.

Not to say that I wouldn't gamble more and on the lines preferred by Joe Sixpack...