Jason Isringhausen Is Still Blowing Leads - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

While watching the first two Pirates/Cardinals games earlier this week, one of the main topics of conversation was Jason isringhausen. The Cardinal announcers constantly wondered how Izzy would handle his first outing in front of the Busch faithful after his demotion and were puzzled that Tony La Russa didn't use him in last night's easy 5-1 win over the Pirates. I didn't see today's game, but I can tell you that La Russa chose today to put Isringhausen in the game with a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning. Things did not go well.
Isringhausen started the eighth by walking Doug Mientkiewicz. That's always a bad sign. Ronny Paulino followed with a single, then Isringhausen threw away Chris Gomez's bunt to let a run score and tie the game up. La Russa left him out there to face pinch-hitter Jason Bay. That was a huge mistake, as Bay took Izzy way deep to left and suddenly a 5-4 Cardinals lead was turning into an easy Pirate win.

Even though it wasn't the ninth inning, Isringhausen picked up his sixth blown save of the year with his implosion on the mound today. I don't know why La Russa put him into a close game this afternoon, but I can't imagine he's going to think about doing it again any time soon.