Uh, a tie game going into the 9th (especially when you are the home team) is not "false hope". I absolutely would have pitched Sims for just the top of the 9th to give us a chance to win it in the bottom. Then, save him for tomorrow if needed if we don't win it then. Seems like an easy decision to me. And don't tell me he could not pitch tomorrow after just one inning tonight.
It's not only an easy decision. It's the only decision. It's common sense.
If Lemonis had it to do all over, I'm sure he would've done the right thing there. Unfortunately he's had to put his team and this fan base through the meat grinder tonight to learn this hard lesson. And I can't believe there are actually people on this message board tonight defending these decisions.
These in game decisions tonight will go down in infamy. We will still be talking about them 20 years from now when we are still chasing our first title.