He found him in Luke Jackson, his fourth pitcher of the game, who gave up the back-breaking three-run homer to Cody Bellinger. As of Friday, teams in the postseason had used five or more pitchers in a game 41 times, while the so-called “opener” has begun to become the norm, in many cases to the manager’s detriment.īut then, with the Braves on the verge of putting a stake in the Dodgers’ hearts Tuesday, holding a 5-2 lead after seven innings, their old school manager Brian Snitker inexplicably decided himself to go on the constant search for the one guy who didn’t have it. According to the Elias Bureau, the average number of pitchers per game has gradually increased from 5.5 in 1988 to 6.9 in ‘98, 7.8 in ‘08, 8.6 in ‘18 and 8.8 this season. A lot of this, of course, can be attributed to the dramatically increased starters’ workloads this year after last year’s pandemic-reduced season, and the concerns of them breaking down (like Astros ace Lance McCullers) with yet another tier of postseason potentially to come.īut in reality, we’ve seen this “Bullpen Baseball” coming. So far there have been only four instances in which a starting pitcher has pitched seven or more innings, two of them by the Giants’ Logan Webb in the NL Division Series.
If there’s one thing that’s stood out the most in a game run amok with analytics, it’s the notable absence of innings-eating starting pitcher “horses” in the mode of Madison Bumgarner, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester, Jacob deGrom or Corey Kluber this postseason. For a game in serious trouble in terms of losing its appeal with its longstanding loyal fan base, baseball is doing itself no favors in this postseason rife with interminable games, relentless pitching changes and embarrassingly awful umpiring calls.
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