You Don’t Always Play to Win the Game

So, if you listen to the Herm Edwards, you would always play to win the game. Well, that might be true in a 16 game football season, but I am going to suggest that while you don’t ever play to lose, in a baseball season that is 10 times longer than a football season, there are reasons you don’t always play to win the game.

“Sometimes we need to lose the small battles in order to win the war.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

There are several reasons you may not always play to win the game:

You are saving some players to fight another day. As an example, I am sure that Justin Turner and David Freese could have played last night, but the Dodgers want them to be as healthy as possible for the playoffs.…