I love watching playoff baseball, but I’m not a big fan of the trend that has seemingly taken ahold of the game over the last two or three years.
There have been more than a dozen post-season games played so far this fall, and in only three instances have we seen a starting pitcher go at least seven innings.
New York’s Masahiro Tanaka, Washington’s Stephen Strasburg and Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks — the latter two doing it in the same game — have only reached the seven-inning plateau.
Far too many times we have seen either the starting pitcher get drilled by the opposition, or the manager push the panic button when his starter gets into trouble and makes a call to the bullpen.
I understand the value of the pen, I really do, and I realize that every game is bigger in the playoffs, especially in a best-of-five divisional series. And there are moments when making a pitching change can add more drama to a game that is already dripping in it.
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But, simply put, managers just don’t trust their starters to get a big out or get out of a jam. Today’s aces are getting paid a gazillion dollars to perform and they’re getting the hook at the first hint of adversity.
Monday provided two perfect examples.
Astros starter Charlie Morton was cruising through four innings when he ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth, prompting manager A.J. Hinch to give Morton the hook and bring in veteran starter Justin Verlander.
In his first post-season relief appearance, the 2011 Cy Young Award winner promptly served up a two-run homer to Boston’s Andrew Benintendi that gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.
Hinch’s hunch didn’t pay off, but his batters bailed him out by pulling out a 5-4 win that sent Houston to its first ALCS, and first League Championship Series since 2005.
Washington skipper Dusty Baker wasn’t as fortunate.
Up 1-0 with one out in the seventh inning, Nationals ace Max Scherzer had a no-hitter going against the Cubs when he gave up a double to Chicago’s Ben Zobrist.
Baker yanked Scherzer and called on reliever Sammy Solis in the hopes of escaping the inning unscathed. But Albert Almora Jr. cashed in Zobrist with a single and the defending champion Cubbies scored again in the bottom of the eighth to win 2-1 and take a 2-1 series lead in their NLDS.
Oh, how I long for the days like Game 7 of the 1992 World Series when Jack Morris pitched all 10 innings and led the Minnesota Twins to a 1-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.
I guess they just don’t make ’em like they used to — both pitchers and managers.
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