I want to  blast Joe Torre for removing Hong-Chih Kuo after yielding a single to Ryan Howard in the 8th inning of yesterday’s Game 4, but I can’t cut loose here. Granted, he’d left Kuo in to hit/bunt for himself in the 7th, and the pitcher brought in (Cory Wade) had thrown two innings and 33 pitches the night before, but Kuo had only thrown 10 pitches since Sept. 14 and was left off the roster in the team’s series vs. the Cubs to rest his arm.

But this was a turning point in the series. Up 5-3 in the 7th, the Dodgers blew the lead and are now a loss away from being eliminated. If he’d left Kuo in to face Pat Burrell with Shane Victorino on-deck might have things turned out differently? Kuo had thrown 14 pitches to that point. Would it have been too big a risk to leave him in for 25-30?

The main point I want to get across is that Kuo looked fantastic through his 14 pitches in the 7th. His first pitch to Jimmy Rollins was a 95 mph fastball on the inner-half of the plate. Four pitches later the same pitch in the same location would shatter Jimmy Rollins bat, sending the reigning NL MVP into a 360 spin on a ground out.

According to MLB.com’s Pitch F/x, the second pitch to Rollins, a 78 mph curveball, broke 12″. His second curve would break 13″ was a perfectly placed non-swinging strike to Chase Utley. One pitch later he made Utley miss badly on a 97 mph fastball. Utley doesn’t have many pitches thrown by him, but Kuo made him look bad.

The second batter was Jayson Werth who took two fastballs at 96 mph, before also being blown away with the high heat at 97 mph.

Kuo would later be charged with an earned run. He went in on Howard for two balls, but left the third straight fastball over the plate. Howard hit it well back up the middle for a single. After two long trips to the mound by Russell Martin and Torre, Kuo was lifted for Wade, who in addition to 30 pitches the night before, had pitched six innings in five games through the playoffs.

After retiring Burrell, Wade promptly laid a curveball over the heart of the plate to Victorino who lined it over the right field fence for a home run. New game. Undeterred, Torre left Wade in to face Pedro Feliz who roped the second pitch he saw into left — lucky for the Dodgers, right to Manny Ramirez. At this point there’s no doubt Torre should have gone to Broxton. He might have hesitated because he’d already used half his bullpen in the sixth, burning through two lefties in Clayton Kershaw and Joe Beimel, and righty Park Chan-ho.

Carlos Ruiz roped the first pitch he saw into left for a single before Joe Broxton was brought in to face Matt Stairs. Suddenly, a two-run lead with a pitcher throwing as well as he has all season, becomes a two run rocket into the LA night and a 3-1 disadvantage going into Game 5 at Dodger Stadium, where one of the best pitchers in baseball will take the hill for the clincher.