PITCHING TAKES CENTRE STAGE IN WORLD SERIES
Astros and Nationals boast some of the best starters in Major League Baseball
He won’t get the ball for the American League champion Houston Astros until Game 2 of the Fall Classic, but already Justin Verlander is bringing the heat.
With aces high and aces low in the 115th edition of the World Series — which begins here at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night — the veteran starter hopes the sublimely talented pitching matchups that await will help stunt an annoying trend in the game.
Both the Astros and National League champion Washington Nationals have a trio of starters capable of taking their respective teams deep into games. Save the openers and bullpen days for the analytics gurus and over-management we see far too often in the regular season and let the World Series begin.
“It’s definitely nice to see starting pitching have a resurgence,” Verlander said on workout day prior to the best-of-seven series. “In the current state of baseball, if you can’t put a number on it they don’t want to value it and they don’t want to pay you for it. So it’s kind of hard to value starting pitching and it’s kind of hard to value the guy who goes out year after year and gives you 200 innings at a low earned-run average.
“I think this shows that solid starting pitching helps you get to the championship.”
It all gets started in Game 1 when the Astros send out Gerrit Cole while the Nationals counter with Max Scherzer. Together the pair have allowed a total of five runs and 19 hits in a combined 42.2 innings of work this post-season.
Cole, in particular, has been sensational for the Astros in their MLB-best 107-win regular season and playoff victories over the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees. In his past 25 starts, Cole has a 19-0 record and a 1.59 ERA. Verlander calls it one of the “best runs I’ve ever seen,” and the lanky right-hander is certainly a big reason the Astros are favoured to win their second World Series title in three years.
“I, personally, am a big fan of starting pitching,” Cole said Monday. “I grew up wanting to become a starting pitcher and
I’m a starting pitcher now.
“There are a lot of really good starting pitchers (in this series), guys that kind of emulate the role in terms of longevity, durability, creativeness, tenacity and grit. It’s just a pleasure to share the field with them.”
Quite a pleasure for the game, as well.
Whether regular season or post-season, baseball is being dragged down by openers and bullpen days. Managers forgo a rotation for a rotating cast. In two of the six games the Astros needed to bring down the New York Yankees in the ALCS, it took four hours-plus to play nine innings.
So what awaits, one hopes, is a little more baseball the way it’s meant to be played. A starter like Scherzer or Stephen Strasburg, who will get the ball in Game 2 for the Nationals, can take a team deep into a game. Ditto for the Astros duo of Cole and Verlander.
“I’ve only known being a starter and going out there every fifth day and be accountable and try to pitch as deep as I can,” said Patrick Corbin, the Nationals’ expected Game 3 starter. “You look at the two teams here and we both have a lot of guys who can eat up a lot of innings.
“Every team would want guys that can make every start and pitch 200 innings. It’s always been a big part of the game and always should be.”
The Astros have certainly seen the other side of it this post-season, however. They were extended five games in the ALDS against the Rays, whose unconventional use of a pitching staff can be jarring. Then the Yankees’ bullpen was a revolving door, right down to Game 6 in which manager Aaron Boone employed seven pitchers.
The bullpen could well be a factor in the World Series, too, but Astros manager A.J. Hinch has a hunch where the games will be settled.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, for the first time since 1945, the World Series will feature six starting pitchers in the top 20 in ERA — Cole (third at 2.50), Verlander (fourth, 2.58), Scherzer (eighth, 2.92), Zack Greinke (ninth, 2.93), Corbin (13th, 3.25) and Strasburg (16th, 3.32).
“If you want to do well against the Nats, you’ve got to beat their starters,” Hinch said. “If you sit back and kind of wait for the bullpen or wait for them to make a decision, you’ll look at Strasburg and Scherzer throwing 120, 130 pitches and you’ll be too deep in the game to make up a difference.
“Those guys getting 21, 24, 27 outs is a real possibility for them.”
The challenge, then, falls on the hitters. New-school management favours an approach in which the hitter, in theory, has a big edge the third time through the order. In the buildup to this series, however, all signs point to deep outings coming from both teams.
“Every pitch, every at-bat is a new battle,” said Astros outfielder George Springer. “We’re going to find out and it’s going to be a great challenge.
“They are unbelievable competitors. Elite guys who have elite stuff and will be brining it to the biggest stage.”
Nationals manager Dave Martinez agrees.
“If you look at this whole series, both sides have unbelievable starting pitchers. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
I think this shows that solid starting pitching helps you get to the championship.