Game 3 of the National League Championship Series had a chance of being one of those must-see classics. Until it didn’t.
By most accounts (not all — there was some curious baserunning) the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 2-1 win against the Philadelphia Phillies had the earmarks of one of those old-fashioned duels between a couple of stud pitchers that ended with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth. The kind of game that left you hanging in anticipation of the next day’s game.
There was one minor problem with that scenario. The guy who gave up the game-winning hit was the 10th pitcher used in the game. TENTH!
In this not-so-epic game, the starters for both teams were gone before the sixth inning was over. In a game that was scoreless! What in the name of Bert Blyleven is going on here?
What’s going on is baseball today will not let a starting pitcher dare to be great. Chances are good the next time you see a 1-0 complete game will also be your last. In fact it’s probably a good bet the same could be said about the last time you saw one.
Want to see some records that will never be broken? The aforementioned Blyleven (you probably guessed) won 14 games by the score of 1-0, the most in history. He also lost nine by the same score, likewise a record. One pitcher, 23 times, one run scored.
It took 14 rounds on the ballot before Blyleven got into the Hall of Fame. Some day in the not too distant future he’ll share the stage in Cooperstown with Hall of Famers who won’t have shutouts to match either of those numbers, let alone any by the score of 1-0.
Brandon Pfaadt was the starting pitcher for the winning team in that NLCS game on Oct. 19, and he’s hardly more than a footnote in the game, based on the parade of pitchers that followed. He had thrown 70 pitches and struck out nine, including Kyle Schwarber (the next scheduled hitter) twice, in 5.2 innings before being removed, no doubt in anticipation of instant doom.
Ranger Suárez, Pfaadt’s counterpart for Philly, didn’t fare as well. With a runner at third and one out in the sixth, he too got the gate. In this case, there was a runner on third, so this was obviously being played as a potential 1-0 game. Maybe it would’ve been if the starters had been allowed to hang around. We’ll never know.
The Phillies ended up getting three hits — off five different pitchers, in a losing effort. Two of their five pitchers, Orion Kerkering and Craig Kimbrel, gave up five hits in a total of one-third of an inning. The final line score: Three runs, 12 hits, no errors and 10 pitchers between the two teams. Go figure. Only in the 21st century could you find a line like that.
I don’t know Arizona manager Torey Lovullo or Philly manager Rob Thomson other than by reputation as solid baseball men. Neither do I know any analytical restrictions they may have. I just have a hard time believing their baseball DNA dictated the moves last night, just as I did when Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash removed Blake Snell from a World Series game while nursing a 1-0 lead a few years ago.
I have a healthy respect for analytics (it’s impossible to refute what has happened in the past), but still believe in the validity of the eye test. Information is legitimate, but every situation is different. And most managers, I believe, prefer to trust their gut instincts
There was a time I bought into the restrictions placed on starting pitchers — out of fear of damaging young arms throwing pitches with an unnatural notion. But more and more I’ve moved back into the camp of “bigger, faster, stronger” that suggests pitchers can do more than they’re allowed to do.
And make no mistake about this — with rare exceptions (like a potential no-hitter) starting pitchers are not allowed to complete games, or in most cases go beyond six or seven innings.
What I do know is this — baseball is more than willing to turn off the lights, turn up the music and set off the jumbotrons as a closer enters the game to protect a three-run lead than it is to promote the idea of a pitcher finishing what he started and hanging around for the handshakes. I don’t know if this is part of the push to attract younger generations or not (baseball is doing a better job at this), but I don’t think anybody’s going to talk as much the next day about the grand entrance as they would about the rarity of a complete game 1-0 shutout, or even a good, old-fashioned 2-1 pitching duel.
As far as Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS is concerned, I guess it was a classic after all — it took 10 pitchers to complete a 2-1 game that lasted nine innings.
TEN pitchers, NINE innings. THREE runs. Hopefully not the new norm.
Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com