Yes, I got caught up in the moment, too.
By the eighth inning of Game 5, I was already in the middle of writing a column that would, I knew, fall on deaf ears. But that I felt compelled to write anyway. Hey, when you write millions of words, every so often you have to write something for yourself. You should write something for yourself. At least that's how I justify these occasional forays into narcissism. Anyway, I missed it. Oddly, none of my favorite Twitterers seemed to notice, either...
In 1951, the Dodgers' Clem Labine pitched a shutout in the second game of the famous best-of-three playoff series for the National League pennant. But the Dodgers won that game 10-0, and went ahead 8-0 in the top of the seventh. The only reasons for letting Labine finish that game, tactically speaking, were a) if the bullpen had to be rested for the next day's game, b) if the bullpen was fatigued from the previous game, or c) if manager Charlie Dressen had zero intention of using Labine in the next game.
None of these reasons applied. The Dodgers' bullpen was not tired, having been used for just one inning the day before. Dressen had plenty of options for the third game, even if he used someone for three innings in the second game. And we know he didn't have zero intention of using Labine again, because in fact Labine was getting loose in the bullpen when Bobby Thomson won the pennant.
Exactly 50 years later, same thing happened in the World Series. In the fourth inning of Game 6, the Diamondacks took a 15-0 lead over the Yankees. Randy Johnson stayed in the game, ultimately throwing 104 pitches in seven innings. Manager Bob Brenly finally used Bobby Witt for one inning, and Troy Brohawn for another to finish the game. This was Brohawn's only appearance in the entire postseason. Was there any good reason why he couldn't have thrown two innings? Or three?
Leaving Johnson in for seven innings made sense only if Brenly had no intention of using Johnson in Game 7. But of course he did use him. And he was great. So if you're more interested in results than process, you can't fault Brenly for not yanking Johnson from Game 6 an inning or two earlier. Everything worked out wonderfully, thanks to Schilling and Johnson, and Luis Gonzalez's broken-bat single.
And yes, I'm interested in the results, too. But that doesn't mean we can't engage the process, too. As an intellectual exercise.
So I will mention now, purely as an intellectual exercise, that if Bruce Bochy has any intention at all of using Madison Bumgarner in Game 7 of this World Series, he didn't have any business letting Bumgarner throw 117 pitches in Game 5. Not with all those effective relievers in the bullpen, and no baseball Monday.
What bothers me is that I've written about this sort of thing at some length, not once but twice, in different books. But I got caught up in the moment, just like Bruce Bochy seemed to get caught up. Of course there's a huge, almost overwhelming chance that none of this will matter. But hey, it's an off-day. And I'm not ready for a vacation yet.
