A’s to start reliever in wild-card game
NEW YORK — Fittingly, Liam Hendriks wore his cap backward. A reliever is going to start a team’s postseason opener.
A pitcher with no wins in the regular season.
A pitcher cut from the 40-man roster in June who spent two months toiling in the minor leagues.
A pitcher from Down Under who was happy to get medieval in New York.
“Instead of the starter going six and handing it over to the bullpen or going five and handing it over to the bullpen, now we’re just reversing it,” Oakland’s Australian right- hander said Tuesday, a day ahead of the Athletics’ AL wild card game against the New York Yankees.
New York’s Aaron Boone made a more conventional choice for his postseason game as a manager, picking Luis Severino Colorado Rockies’ DJ LeMahieu hits a ground-rule double against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning of the National League wild-card playoff game Tuesday in Chicago. The game was not over in time for this edition.
over J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka.
Severino created a bullpen night in last year’s wild card game but not by design, lasting just one out and leaving with a threerun deficit against Minnesota in a game the Yankees rallied to win 8-4.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin has been
scrambling because of injuries to starting pitchers Jharel Cotton, Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea, Paul Blackburn, Andrew Triggs and Daniel Gossett.
Yet, the A’s finished second in the AL West at 97- 65, their best record in 16 years, and their relievers went 45-16, the secondmost
bullpen wins in big league history behind Tampa Bay’s 54 this year.
“There’s been a struggle between old- school mentality and sabermetrics, and this is a way to kind of incorporate sabermetrics with effectiveness,” Oakland closer Blake Treinen said. “You can’t say going a starter for seven innings is the best way. You can’t say that going an opener is the best way. But this is what’s going to work for us, and we’re going to ride it out, and we have full faith in whoever makes the decisions.”
The Minnesota Twins have fired Paul Molitor, one season after he won the American League Manager of the Year award.
In four seasons under Molitor, the Twins went 305-343 with one appearance in the playoffs in 2017.
They were 78-84 this year, long out of postseason contention after a series of early setbacks to key players.
Major League Baseball’s average attendance dropped 4 percent to 28,830, its lowest since 2003 after 14 consecutive seasons topping 30,000, and six stadiums set record lows.
Baltimore’s Camden Yards, Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field, Minnesota’s Target Field, Miami’s Marlins Park and Pittsburgh’s PNC Park also drew their smallest attendance since opening as part of a ballpark boom.
The average is down 14.4 percent from its high of 32,785 in 2007, the last year before the Great Recession. It had not been that low since 28,013 in 2003.