In a postseason where starters are eating fewer innings than ever - 4.06 frames on average, per FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe - the Braves have gotten three six-inning starts and saved their bullpen for nights like Sunday when their starter doesn’t have it. And Charlie Morton, set to face off with Buehler on Tuesday night, will be on extra rest this time after going 3 1/3 frames on short rest when the Braves eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers. Max Fried has gone six innings in each of his postseason starts - including Game 1. That’s particularly worrisome considering how comparatively on rhythm the Braves have managed to keep their best arms. The Dodgers may now roll two bullpen games in the four games of the NLCS, alongside a shortened Scherzer start and one fully rested Walker Buehler outing that’s coming in Tuesday’s crucial Game 3 ( which the Dodgers are -175 favorites to win at BetMGM). Still, the decision to use Urías in that Game 2 setup spot deserves some scrutiny because of the taxing ripple effects. Mixing and matching up is par for the course. The 2018 Boston Red Sox and 2019 Washington Nationals won rings by leveraging deep starting rotations and October’s regular off days to paper over less reliable bullpens. The Dodgers successfully rolled with an opener in that crucial Game 5. Is this a case of sound strategy hitting a snag, or one of tactical overdrive steering a finely tuned machine toward the ditch? Are the Dodgers overthinking the pitching plan?Īs Scherzer or Urías would attest, the deployment of top starters in relief situations is anything but a non-starter in the playoffs these days. But the Dodgers’ 0-2 hole looks far more dire in large part because of how those starters have been thrust into action.
Unconventional or counterintuitive doesn’t equal bad in the postseason. It could mean that a team already in a 2-0 NLCS hole is at risk of entering a must-win Game 4 with none of its trusted starters fully ready to go. If Urías can’t pitch, or is limited, the same bullpen Roberts apparently didn’t trust to complete its usual assignment - late-game outs in one-inning bursts - could be asked to cover vast swaths of a game with elimination in the offing.
0 kommentar(er)
