Hearts

From BluWiki

In a home game against the New York Mets on July 18, 2006, the Reds were down 3-2 in the top of the 7th. Eric Milton, who is well-known for sudden and disastrous meltdowns after seemingly pitching well for significant portions of the game, was pitching.

Milton allowed the Mets to load the bases, bringing up MVP candidate Carlos Beltran.

Instead of bringing in a reliever to face Beltran, Jerry Narron allowed Milton (who had thrown 103 pitches already and had just given up a lot of loud fouls and sharply hit balls) to pitch to Beltran, who promptly put the game out of reach with a grand slam into the upper deck in left.

"I went with my heart, and I got burned a little bit," Narron said. "What can you do? I have a lot of guys who've shown a lot of heart, and I wanted to repay it a little bit."

What can he do? He could learn from his mistakes, but he doesn't. Narron has demonstrated a penchant for leaving pitchers in way too long and not having relievers up in the bullpen in anticipation of "meltdown" situations based on prior experience and statistical analysis of his starters. It just keeps happening, over and over, and he doesn't ever seem to learn. Red Reporters refer to this practice as "heart"-ing his pitchers.

Red Reporter does not heart Jerry Narron's bullpen management.