Having no love for the Dodgers, I am gleaning at least a modicum of joy over their fans screaming about seeing a team eat it. Baseball doesn't make sense, but that's a good thing when it happens to teams you don't want to see win. I no longer have a horse in the race so that means every team to me. It is a sweet place.
There is an easy target for someone who just needs to quench their jones for something to complain about if there are baseball cranks out there. It's a relief. It's a group of people standing together.
We have seen an extended game on two Saturdays in the playoffs. The two teams played 15 frames. The two teams saw that and went to 18 frames. Both teams were close to scoring in both games. It isn't like any of the fourRelievers had to dance through the rain and get out of jams and have the big strikeouts or double plays that we remember. A bunch of strikeouts turned it all into a blob.
Six relief pitchers from the Astros pen threw seven strong frames, with nine strikeouts, one walk, and three hits. Penn Murfee, who didn't have a first name or correctly spelled last name, gave it all up after the pen threw 10 hours of work, striking out 14 and only giving up two hits.
After Peter Fairbanks went down with an injury, the pen had fiveRelievers come in and throw seven shut outs with 13 strikeouts, one walk, and 2 hits. The pen struck out fifteen times. You wouldn't have had a clue who the pitchers were if they showed up at your door naked and holding a weasel.
The Padres were able to oust the Dodgers mostly due to the fact that their pen was bad and they had a great relief corps. This is the game now, and we understand that, but it doesn't make for a great viewing experience to watch guys strike out all the hitters you have while barely straining to do so. The fact that the game went 18 hours is a weird quirk, but it was pretty punishing to watch. A group of guys are playing a game.
What has always been playoff lore is not going to be squashed by this. Everyone gets an at-bat and a crucial one can land on your 7th or 8th hitters. The game has evolved so that the biggest moments are going to be pitched by the relief pitchers. The Braves won last year because of a few people. Even though you couldn't pick any of them out of a police lineup, it's still the nature of the thing.
The fact is that jackass are more likely to strike out two or three of the three or four hitters they see. The Padres got to have their chaotic comeback in the fourth game of the playoffs, but it's rare. Baseball sometimes dictates a bunch of relief pitchers turn into Dennis Eckersley for a week and that's why the Braves were smothered by the Phils.
Too many guys throw too hard and with too much spin for the best hitters in the world to do a lot. A pitch clock might help next year, but it's not certain. The experiment with moving the mound back in the Atlantic League last year was a flop and has probably pushed that back for years.
Baseball's playoffs will still be determined by the most faceless members of the team. The feature used to be a bug. Maybe that is your thing. As we get more games, I think it will be more of a people's thing than a people's thing.
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