Tuesday night, Jeremy Guthrie gave up a run in the second inning — giving the Orioles their first lead in this American League Championship Series — but otherwise shut the O’s down through the fifth.
Some manager might well have been tempted to send Guthrie out for the sixth. After all, the Royals’ vaunted bullpen is vaunted because their top three firemen handle the seventh, eighth, and ninth with such aplomb. The sixth … well, that’s been a question mark in some games.
In Game 3, Ned Yost tried something new. As usual, Kelvin Herrera pitched the seventh (and a lights-out seventh, at that). But this time, Jason Frasor pitched the sixth ...
Nice inning by Herrera, Frasor had the tougher job going thru Jones, Cruz & Pearce, no one will talk about it. #NoSuchThingAs4HeadedMonster
— CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) October 15, 2014
Hey, we’re talking about it!
If you’re playing a computer game, you use Herrera in the sixth, because he’s demonstrably better than Frasor and you’re supposed to use your better pitcher in the higher-leverage situation.
But Herrera’s been a little gimpy lately. Sure, you could use Herrera in the sixth, and then lights-out Wade Davis in the seventh and eighth. But the Royals aren’t scheduled for any more off-days during this series, so maybe it’s best to husband the resources.
And if there was ever a spot when you should use Jason Frasor, this is probably it: middle of the game, three straight right-handed hitters coming up. In his career, Frasor has held righty hitters to a .229/.302/.361 line, which is perfectly fine. And in this spot, he retired all three.
That said, I’m not at all sure that choosing Frasor is why we should toast Ned Yost. I think we should toast Yost for getting Guthrie out of the game while the getting was still so good.
