No relief for boneheaded bullpen moves

OUT OF sight, but not out of mind: Games continue to be determined by the ridiculous, and if the Yankees lose a playoff spot to the A’s, consider the game the A’s played against the Astros in Oakland, last week.

Both teams’ managers, as per modern insanity, mined their bullpens in search of a reliever to blow the game. At 3-2, Houston, the Astros’

Ryan Pressley came in to pitch a 1, 2, 3 seventh, two strikeouts on 14 pitchers.

Naturally, as if that could be improved upon, he was pulled for the latest designated eighth-inning man,

Roberto Osuna, who allowed a hit and a walk, but no runs.

In the ninth, Houston still up, 3-2, AJ Hinch’s latest closer, Hector Rondon, now with five blown saves and this week replaced in the role by Osuna, entered the game. He allowed a hit, two walks and an earned run to tie the game.

But it was more ridiculous than that. With a runner on first, one out, Oakland’s Ra

mon Laureano tried to score on a line-drive double. On a very close play at the plate he was called out.

This one was far too close to overturn, as even the A’s TV announcers acknowledged, according to trusted longtime West Coast unpaid correspon- dent David Distefano.

But with two out, down a run, in the ninth, what was there to lose? Replay challenge!

And based on nothing better than a second opinion from a control room 3,000 miles away of a call made from two steps away that was too close to reverse, the call was reversed. The A’s had tied the game.

Next, with the Astros’ bullpen depleted for no good reason, the A’s won in the 10th when Tony Sipp, the sixth pitcher used by Hinch, threw a leadoff homer to Matt Olson.

It wouldn’t have mattered had Pressley retired the side on three pitches, the seventh — and only the seventh — was his inning.

And it doesn’t matter how many games are lost by managers who fix what’s not broken. They’ll do it again, and again and again.