Imrem: Maddon's move under scrutiny even after Chicago Cubs' victory

Step right up, Joe Maddon.

It's your turn to endure 77 lashes with a wet Sports Illustrated.

The significance of the penalty? That's how many pitches Jon Lester threw before Maddon pinch-hit for him in Game 1 of the National League division series.

Wait! Maddon gets a stay of sentence.

The Cubs rescued their manager by responding to his controversial move by beating the Dodgers 8-4.

Miguel Montero's grand-slam home run broke a tie in the eighth inning and the Cubs won a game they didn't have to be in danger of losing.

Maddon is going to be criticized even in victory because taking out Lester was so baffling.

Just those 77 pitches ... a 3-1 lead ... the Dodgers' season-long struggles against left-handed pitching ... suddenly the L.A. ties the game ...

"I just thought that Jon wasn't on top of his game," Maddon said.

No, not even Maddon in victory is immune to playoff scrutiny that usually comes after a loss.

Nor is Bruce Bochy, who has won three World Series. Nor is Buck Showalter, one of the best minds in baseball.

Those guys have been criticized this postseason after their teams lost.

"Because something doesn't work," Maddon has said, "doesn't mean it was the wrong thing to do. It just means it didn't work."

The Cubs have been through this before during the postseason: Dusty Baker for not taking out Mark Prior soon enough in 2003 and Lou Piniella for taking out Carlos Zambrano too soon in 2007.

Every manager's responsibilities are 20 percent creating a clubhouse culture, 10 percent handling a pitching staff and 5 percent running a game.

The other 65 percent is to be scrutinized.

It might be for wearing the wrong lip gloss. It might be for stepping on the baseline on the way to the mound. It might be for using red ink instead of blue on his lineup card.

Or it might be for taking Lester out sooner than later to begin playing bullpen roulette.

Managers make big bucks to be criticized by doctors, electricians, tailors, starch salesmen and media members.

Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski said after retaining John Farrell last week, "That's what makes our game so interesting ... a lot of people think they know more than the manager about strategy."

The way Maddon puts it is, "The assumption is the other team has Little League players or American Legion players. That's a bad assumption to make. Both sides are good and sometimes it just doesn't work out."

A manager knows he has made it when if his team wins, he's credited, and if his team loses, the players are blamed.

The problem in the postseason is that, win or lose, there's enough blame to go around for both the manager and the players.

Maddon is up to it because there's hardly another manager who has as much confidence in his ability.

"The outcome bias component," Maddon said, "I've always kind of chuckled at that."

Rest assured that for whatever strategy Maddon is being blamed, he'll still believe he had the appropriate reason for doing what he did.

"A lot of that stuff was pre-planned before the game," Maddon said of his moves.

The masses wouldn't want to hear it if the Cubs lost the game.

Heck, they might not want to hear it even after the Cubs had to rally to win it.

mimrem@dailyherald.com