2nd-guessing Hinch OK, but no decision foolproof
Gerrit Cole should have pitched Wednesday night, but A.J. Hinch didn’t give God a chance.
Not in life — come on, we’re not questioning the man’s faith here — but in baseball.
It is Game 7 of the World Series, and you choose not to utilize your top pitching weapon? (I’ll apologize to Justin Verlander right here, but do note, declaring Cole as the Astros’ top pitcher over Verlander is akin to listing No. 1 and 2 flavors of Blue Bell.)
Recently, when Cole was asked how he was able to maintain top velocity 110-plus pitches into an outing, he said it wasn’t him.
“God,” the former As
tros righthander said. “Seriously. Been doing it for a long time. I just try and not mess it up.”
(OK, “former” might be a bit premature, since it is possible he could re-sign with the team. But the Major League Baseball Players Association announcement listing free agents from every team was released at 3:16 p.m. Thursday. Cole announced he was no longer an Astros employee some 16 hours earlier.)
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Cole is a natural who works his tail off not to mess up what God gave him.
He got better when he joined the Astros before the 2018 season, and he had a Cy Youngcaliber year with one of the more dominant performances in MLB history in 2019.
Unfortunately for the Astros, the way the playoffs ran his last start was in Game 5 on Sunday. He was brilliant in that one, going seven innings and allowing just three hits and one run in a victory that put them one win shy of a world title.
With the decisive Game 7 on tap for Wednesday, it would be Hinch’s call as to whether Cole would return to the mound on just two days’ rest.
Did he make the wrong call? Let’s not act like any of us knows for sure.
The standard rest period is four days. In a playoff pinch, studs like Cole will start a game after taking just three days off. At times, like when a World Series is on the line, pitchers come back in two days or even one.
Before the game, Hinch decided Cole was ready and he was going to go with him. But he had a couple simple, yet probably flexible, ground rules:
• Cole would most likely be called on only to start an inning.
• Cole would not be used if the Astros were behind.
Considering that, Hinch was presented with a perfectly suitable spot to use Cole to start the seventh inning. The Nos. 2-4 hitters in the Nationals’ lineup were scheduled to hit.
The problem: Starter Zack Greinke was cruising in a shutout, having held the Nationals to one hit through six innings. He barely had time to blink as he went through the sixth in eight pitches.
Leave Greinke in?
Turn to Cole?
Since you don’t want Cole to come in with runners on, should you let Greinke pitch until signs of trouble, then go with your designated “panic button” in Will Harris, who didn’t allow a run in 10 postseason appearances before giving up a solo homer in Game 6?
Hinch chose the latter, and the file containing the City of Houston parade plan was closed and saved, to be reopened the next time the Astros are in the championship mix.
That’ll be next year.
The Astros’ manager knows what he is doing.
Wednesday’s call wasn’t a terrible decision. It just didn’t work. Hinch went with his best against their best. Putting Cole in a situation he had never faced would have been risky.
I expected Cole to start the seventh, and I’m pretty sure Cole did too, especially with Nationals No. 2 hitter Adam Eaton leading off for his third look at Greinke. But there is no guarantee all would have worked out in the end.
Yes, Cole is better than Greinke right now. But Wednesday night, with Greinke rolling and Cole potentially trying something he had never done in his career, Hinch’s call is understandable.
Greinke retired Eaton before giving up a home run to Anthony Rendon to cut the Astro’ lead to 2-1. Greinke then walked the very dangerous Juan Soto with his 80th pitch.
Hinch then made a call that is worthy of debate. He brought in Harris, who has pitched as a reliever in nearly 450 games, instead of Cole, who has started more than 200 major league games but has never come on in relief.
That Harris threw a pretty nice pitch, one not many players could handle, is little consolation for the result: a two-run homer by Howie Kendrick.
The Nationals took the lead there and never looked back in a 6-2 win.
Would Cole on super-short rest have been better than Greinke to start the seventh inning?
Should Greinke have been allowed to fight through a runner on first base with one out and Kendrick, who had hit into a double play earlier, coming up?
Would Cole on super-short rest have done a better job than Harris and gotten the Astros out of the seventh without giving up the game-winning homer?
There are no definitive answers.
The Nationals got enough done to win the World Series. The Astros didn’t.
Hinch’s decisions could have changed the game and the Series. Or not.