Baseball analytics are changing the game. Not only are starting pitchers in danger of never winning a game by completing 5 innings, they also seem to be in shorter supply. Granted the playoff teams this year all seem to have two or three traditional starters, but few teams, if any, seem to have a reliable and healthy four or five man rotation. You don’t have to go back too many years to find examples of teams with four or even five starters with 30 or more starts in a season.
Now we are faced with a game 6 in the ALCS and, lo and behold, neither team is going to field a starter. If NY wins game 6, at least Game 7 will feature Cole and Severino as starters.
We are, like it or not, entering the era of the bullpen game. Does the trending change in pitcher usage continue? If it does, will starting pitchers become an extinct species? Will pitching to the same batter twice in one game become too risky? How many walks or hits will a pitcher be able to yield before getting the “quick hook”?
To forecast a return to the days of a Walter Johnson, a Warren Spahn or even a Nolan Ryan seems implausible. The complete game is nearly an anachronism already. Even the somewhat newer Quality Start is an endangered species. Will a bullpen no-no ever be equated with a “real” no-hitter? I hope not.
And yet, not so long ago, a rather pedestrian pitcher retired 27 batters in a row in a World Series game.
Tonight we may see a “bullpen game” by either team, in which 27 batters in a row are struck out. Not likely, or course, but it will never erase the accomplishment in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series by Don Larsen. Would it even be a footnote?
