The Giants’ Madison Bumgarner, a starter acting as his team’s closer, memorably saved Game 7 of the 2014 World Series with five lockdown innings in Kansas City. This is an old phenomenon that is new again.
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I enjoy seeing those battles between managers, using their bullpen to full capacity.” Both managers have done a tremendous job using their bullpens. “But at the same time, it’s amazing to watch both teams, the way they have done it.
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“The starters go four sometimes, five sometimes – it will be a plus if the starter goes six or seven innings,” Rivera said. Since the Showalter debacle, though, managers have eagerly deployed their best relievers, and Rivera has watched Maddon and Cleveland’s Terry Francona with interest. This postseason began with the Orioles’ manager, Buck Showalter, stuck oddly in the past, using six relievers in a wild-card loss in Toronto but refusing to use Britton – the league’s best reliever – at all. Rivera was at Wrigley Field on Saturday to present the American League Reliever of the Year award, which is named for him, to Baltimore’s Zach Britton. He never pitched before the eighth inning, either. From 1997 through 2011, Mariano Rivera made 85 appearances as the Yankees’ postseason closer. He never pitched before the eighth inning. From 1988 to 1996, Dennis Eckersley made 26 appearances as a postseason closer for Oakland and St. It is startling, in a way, that such a strategy seems so radical. “I understand that, but I always appreciate it if they let me know that I’m going to pitch more than the ninth inning. “I’m always prepared for the ninth inning that’s my job,” Chapman said afterward through an interpreter. pitched to the first two Indians hitters in the top of that inning – Maddon said he liked the matchup with the batter leading off, Mike Napoli – Chapman entered for the first eight-out save of his career. (Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, had no idea he was also playing World Series casting director when he traded the two in July.)įacing elimination before Game 5, Cubs manager Joe Maddon talked with Chapman so he would be ready to pitch in the seventh inning.
“It couldn’t be long before Chappy would be in the game.”Ĭhappy is Aroldis Chapman, a former New York Yankee like Miller who looms over every game of this series. “You’ve been seeing the other side do their thing,” said David Ross, the Cubs’ veteran catcher, who knew what would happen when he and starter Jon Lester left after the top of the sixth on Sunday.