Stuck in middle pays dividends in this World Series
The stars of this World Series exist in baseball’s netherworld. No one grows up dreaming: “Mommy! Daddy! I want to be a middle reliever!” Yet here they are, more important than ever, more numerous than ever, more prominent than ever.
Through five games of this World Series, there was no leading man, just a seemingly endless supply of meaningful middle men, character actors and support staff. Their collective Q Score is almost certainly lower than their collective ERA, which is saying something.
With the Atlanta Braves attempting to close out the series Tuesday night in Game 6 in Houston, there was plenty of tension. But there’s also a group that was having more fun than the rest of us — in the clubhouse snapping towels behind the scenes, then stepping under the klieg lights to get out after out after out in innings three through eight.
“We’re texting each other at 4:30 in the morning, looking at each other like, ‘I can’t sleep,’ ” Atlanta reliever Luke Jackson said. “‘I’m wired. This is it.’ ”
If closers are failed starters, then middle relievers are — what, exactly? Not yet fully formed closers, mostly. Or, worse, failed closers trying to get back to that role, where big money can be made. Consider the little game the Braves play at the end of their game of catch each day.
Out loud, they say to each other: “It’s 3-2,
Game 7 of the World Series. You’ve got to throw a strike.”
“It’s a game that pitchers play to lock yourself in during catch,” Atlanta closer Will Smith said, “and work on throwing
strikes.”
That’s normally a ninth-inning fantasy to draw out focus. But for these guys on both teams, those games of catch could end with visions of one pitch to end the fourth. Or the eighth. Or any of the innings in between. They’re all important, and the men who are throwing them are now being introduced nightly. During the regular season, middle relievers are almost expected to falter. Here, they’re such studs, it’s a shock when they do.
SERIES CHATTER
Braves manager
Brian Snitker said he dropped Ozzie Albies from second to seventh in the batting order “just to change the look.”
Albies was 3 for 18 with three walks and no extrabase hits in the first five games. He had not hit lower than fifth during the regular season.
The Astros had righthander Luis Garcia on the mound with three days’ rest after lasting 3 2⁄3 innings and taking the loss in Game 3.
Alex Bregman (hitting .111) remained seventh in the Astros’ batting order and Carlos Correa third for Game 6. Astros manager Dusty Baker dropped Bregman down from third and moved Correa up from fifth for Game 5. Bregman hit an RBI double that started Houston’s comeback from a four-run deficit, and Correa had three hits and two RBI.