So, this was the difference right here.
It was the sixth inning. New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton vs. Oakland Athletics closer Blake Treinen. Yankees up 3-0. Loser goes home.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin was forced to call on Treinen with a runner on third, none out, and Stanton in a 1-0 count, asking the lights-out right-hander with the 0.78 ERA to bail his teammate, Fernando Rodney, out of a hell of a mess. A run was already in. Another could put it out of reach.
Treinen missed with his first two pitches, before battling back to work the count full. He located a couple of flawless, 98-mph fastballs down and in to Stanton, who could only foul them off. Then Treinen spun a tight, 91-m.p.h. slider that might or might not have grazed the inside edge of the strike zone. Home plate umpire Jim Wolf decided it was a ball.
Here’s an isolated look:
There’s no right answer. It’s the kind of perfectly borderline pitch that could’ve generated an argument no matter which way it was called. The kind of decisive ruling that can tilt an inning in either direction.
If that pitch is called a strike, maybe Treinan pitches around Luke Voit, who was up next, and gets Didi Gregorius to ground into a double play. Maybe he strikes out Voit and Gregorius. Maybe Voit hits a chopper and the runner is cut down at home. Maybe Oakland keeps its deficit at three and stages a comeback. Maybe a million things happen.
But it was called a ball and Stanton took his base. That brought up Voit, who worked a nine-pitch at-bat culminating in a slider being taken to the wall in right for a triple that plated both runs. On the very next pitch, Voit scored on a Gregorius sacrifice fly.
Luke Gehrig. #WildCard pic.twitter.com/ho4YMb8RuJ
— MLB (@MLB) October 4, 2018
And there you have it. Stanton got a call, Treinan didn’t, and the Yankees took a six-run lead they’d never relinquish. This isn’t to take away from Voit’s at-bat, which was sublime. Or Stanton’s eye, which clearly served him well. Or New York’s pitching staff, which was dominant. It’s just the difference a call makes.
SEVERINO’S REVENGE
Exactly a year to the day he was lifted from the 2017 AL Wild Card game after facing six batters and retiring just one, Luis Severino took the mound Wednesday night with demons to be exorcised. And his first three pitches of the ballgame, each overpowering fastballs, left no doubt as to how long he’d been waiting for this opportunity:
Sevy’s bringing tonight. #WildCard pic.twitter.com/o7sG2LKlCv
— MLB (@MLB) October 4, 2018
Severino was dominant in that first inning, retiring the side on 10 pitches — 9 of them high-90’s fastballs. He was pretty amped up. But you can’t just throw fastballs all night. So, after his team gave him a two-run lead in the bottom of the frame, Severino settled down and made an adjustment.
He threw 27 pitches in the second inning, 15 of them sliders. Not a single one was put in play. He earned a strike with 10 of them. A 99-m.p.h. heater is great and all, but Severino’s nasty, biting slider is what makes him near unhittable some nights.
Like, good luck with this:
Luis Severino, Filthy 86mph Slider. pic.twitter.com/YTWhMOEoLJ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 4, 2018
And here’s what it looks like overlaid with his fastball:
Luis Severino, 98mph Fastball (foul) and 87mph Slider (Swinging K), Overlay. pic.twitter.com/jmiBLjiAq6
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 4, 2018
After showing it only once in the first inning, Severnio leaned on that slider for the rest of his outing, throwing it 37 times and using it to generate eight of his 16 swinging strikes. He continued to mix in his overpowering heater along the way, and didn’t allow a hit until the first batter of the fifth inning.
He gave way to his team’s shutdown bullpen not long after. But a scoreless four innings, with seven strikeouts and only two hits allowed, surely puts a nice end to a long 365 days for Luis Severino.
HENDRIKS OPENS
On June 24, the Oakland Athletics designated Liam Hendriks and his 7.36 ERA for assignment. At the cost of only a 40-man roster spot, 29 other MLB teams decided they didn’t want to add the 29-year-old to their bullpens. He was sent to the minors outright, and spent the next seven weeks pitching at triple-A.
Wednesday, Hendriks started a playoff game. To be more accurate, he opened it. And it didn’t go particularly well at all. Hendriks missed the zone with six of his first eight pitches, and then Aaron Judge did this:
#AllRise pic.twitter.com/36HNMGsDw3
— MLB (@MLB) October 4, 2018
Let that not be an indictment of the opener as sound strategy. It’s actually been going quite well for the teams that utilize it. The Rays were the first, using an opener 55 times this season, starting with Sergio Romo’s perfect first inning vs. the Los Angeles Angels on May 19. From that point on, Tampa’s pitching staff ranked among the best in baseball:
Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff from May 19:
Category | Stat | MLB Rank |
---|---|---|
ERA | 3.50 | 2nd |
WHIP | 1.18 | 3rd |
Starter ERA | 3.33 | 1st |
Bullpen ERA | 3.59 | 4th |
Opposition Avg. | 0.225 | 2nd |
Opposition OBP | 0.296 | 2nd |
Oakland, meanwhile, lost its entire opening day rotation to injury, and a couple of the fill-ins as well. Sean Manaea (27 games started) led the team in starts by seven, and he hasn’t pitched since late August.
So, the Athletics turned to openers, using the strategy nine times in September. Hendriks pitched eight of those outings after returning from the minors, and posted a 2.08 ERA while holding opposition hitters to a .188 batting average. He didn’t allow a run in the first inning, including a perfect frame against the Yankees in early September.
Things went differently Wednesday. Hendriks desperately needed to throw a strike, Judge was selling out on a fastball, and the outcome was a 116-m.p.h., 427-foot, chest-igniting laser that leaves any ballpark in baseball. So it goes. Hendriks rallied to retire the next three batters, his final three of the evening. But the damage was done.
It’s important to note that an unfortunate side effect of the opener strategy is the potential for it to be used to suppress player salaries. Limiting games started for pitchers who follow openers and log volume innings in relief could have earnings-limiting effects through arbitration. It’s troubling, certainly. But the true effect both remains to be seen and is a topic for another day.
The opener makes strategic sense, has been utilized successfully, and will likely be seen even more across baseball next season. Wednesday night, it just didn’t work out.
BATTLE OF THE BULLPENS
Some AL Wild Card game bullpen performances of note:
Lou Trivino picked up from Hendriks to begin the bottom of the second, and was essentially unhittable over three innings. He dialed his four-seamer up to 99-m.p.h. He made right-handed batters look foolish with beautifully located cutters down and away. He faced 10 batters and needed only 41 pitches to record his nine outs. His performance will be long forgotten, but credit to Trivino for keeping his team in it when the game was still up for grabs.
Things usually go in one of two extremely different directions when Dellin Betances enters a game. Fortunately for the Yankees, Wednesday’s direction was the one you want. The huge right-hander was dominant in relief of Severino, retiring all six batters he faced with a blend of 98-m.p.h. heaters and wicked curveballs that Oakland hitters had little hope of even making contact with, let alone putting in play.
The appearance of Rodney, a 41-year-old veteran of 16 MLB seasons, commenced Oakland’s downfall in the sixth. The first hit wasn’t his fault, as Aaron Judge took a ridiculously late swing at the second pitch Rodney threw, somehow managing to skip a stone up the first base line that started foul yet went for a double. But the second hit was, as, two pitches later, Aaron Hicks turned around a 95-m.p.h. fastball on the plate to drive in Judge. Rodney’s next pitch was in the dirt, and just like that, he was gone.
The Yankees bullpen is overflowing with closers. The three pitchers who went an inning each to finish the game — Daniel Robertson, Zach Britton, and Aroldis Chapman — each have more than 135 saves in their careers. It’s a little unfair, especially considering the Yankees began the seventh inning with a 98 per cent win probability.
Treinen was put in an extraordinarily difficult position, having to pick up for Rodney with none out, a runner on third, a 1-0 count on the batter, and the game hanging in the balance. The call he didn’t get on Ball 4 to Stanton just tipped the scales completely against him. Then Voit had the at-bat of his life. Still, Treinen did what he could, retiring six of the seven he faced after Voit and carrying his team into the eighth. But Melvin simply pushed his closer too far. Treinen’s 42nd and final pitch of the night was not a good one, which is why Giancarlo Stanton was able to hit it 443-feet:
.@Giancarlo818 to the MOON. pic.twitter.com/FWbIXdPpPH
— MLB (@MLB) October 4, 2018
With an exit velocity of 117.4-m.p.h., that’s the hardest-hit home run in the StatCast era. And a fitting way to say good night.
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