Jason Isringhausen Gets What He Asked for - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

One thing is clear: it's not a good time to be a closer in the National League Central. After an adventurous week (read: two blown saves) last week, Jason Isringhausen asked manager Tony La Russa to remove him from the closer's job on Friday night and yesterday, La Russa complied. Here's what Izzy had to say about things:

"It's just something that needs to be done," Isringhausen said. "It wasn't about them. It was about me."

Isringhausen ripped his performance after allowing the Milwaukee Brewers a two-run rally in Friday night's 4-3 Cardinals loss at Miller Park. Isringhausen described it as "pitching like a second-grader."

Clearly, when a pitcher is in the mental state that it sounds like Isringhausen's in, it's time to find another closer. Until he pulls himself together, La Russa has said he's going to go with a closer-by-committee, mixing and matching guys like Ryan Franklin and Randy Flores. I'll admit that I think this is the way to go, because match-ups should dictate who pitches a lot more than an arbitrary "closer" designation, but for some reason it rarely seems to work out. Still, if the Cardinals are going to keep their unlikely hot start going, they can't afford a guy like Isringhausen taking the ball at the end of the game until he straightens himself out.