Condensed schedule to tax pitching staffs
Four division series to be held with no planned off days
NEW YORK — Postseason games come at an unprecedented pace starting Monday in this year of the pandemic.
Teams could play the Division Series over five consecutive days, take a single day off and then contest the League Championship Series on seven consecutive days. That could could stress closers such as Aroldis Chapman, Liam Hendriks and Kenley Jansen, and starters like Gerrit Cole and Walker Buehler.
“I’m old school, I guess, but it’s all about winning. And if they needed me, I wanted them to put me in there, ” said Darold Knowles, who helped Oakland win the 1973 title by becoming the first to pitch in all seven World Series games. “I think that’s the way everybody feels now, but they’re so afraid they’re going to hurt somebody. And I understand that. I think it’s a little bit overdone.”
No one has pitched in games for five consecutive days since Texas’ Shawn Tolleson from Sept. 29- Oct. 3, 2015, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The last to pitch seven days in a row was San Francisco’s Steve Kline from July 31- Aug. 6, 2007.
“The five days in a row would be interesting, right? You would have to be really efficient the first four days for that to happen,” New York Yankees reliever Zack Britton said. “But if it’s a winner- takeall game, you’re going do it because that’s what you need to do to win.”
The Division Series has had a 2- 2- 1 format since 1998, with a day off scheduled between Games 2 and 3, then another between Games 4 and 5 as the teams shift to each other’s ballpark. The League Championship Series has had a 2- 3- 2 format since 1985, with days off between Games 2 and 3, then another between Games 5 and 6.
Travel days were eliminated with a switch to a bubble environment in an attempt to avoid October interruptions caused by COVID- 19.
AL Division Series start Monday, when the Yankees and Tampa Bay play at San Diego’s Petco Park, and Oakland and Houston meet at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. NL Division Series open Tuesday, with Miami facing Atlanta at Houston’s Minute Maid Park and San Diego playing the Dodgers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
To start twice in the Division Series, Game 1 pitchers would have to come back on three days’ rest.
“The change was purely a product the timing we needed to institute the bubble and avoid extending the end date of the postseason,” commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “We always are concerned about player health, but the number of days in a row is not all that different from stretches in the regular season and we have expanded rosters.”
Union head Tony Clark said the schedule was set at MLB’s discretion.
“The original draft of the postseason schedule we received on 7/ 31 had fewer off days but didn’t eliminate them,” he wrote in an email. “We didn’t see the revised schedule until right before it went out publicly.”
Winners advance to the ALCS in Arlington starting Sunday and the NLCS in San Diego beginning Oct. 12. The World Series opening Oct. 20 will keep the days off in the 2- 32 format used since 1924, even though it will be played entirely in Arlington.
Reaching the World Series will test an entire pitching staff more than usual. Washington used five pitchers for 31 of 36 innings of its sweep of St. Louis in last year’s NL Championship and three pitchers — Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin — for 89.2 innings among 153 in the postseason, or 59%.
“You can’t just send your closer out there for two innings and think those guys are going to continue to to be able to do that. They’d probably be willing to do it, but it’s probably not going to be the most successful way forward,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “I don’t mind it honestly, It tests your depth of a pitching staff and the way you do things You don’t need the off days. You’re not traveling.”