On the World Series stage, a bullpen game just feels wrong

The Athletic has live coverage of Rangers vs. Diamondbacks in World Series Game 5

PHOENIX — The fourth game of the World Series should have come with a Halloween warning label: Overuse of overmatched relief pitchers. May not be suitable for die-hard fans.

There were 11 hits from the winning team, 12 hits from the losing team, 13 pitchers total – and it might have lasted 14 hours if not for the pitch clock.

That’s a modern innovation that kept the Texas Rangers’ 11-7 thumping of the Arizona Diamondbacks bearable: it was over in 200 minutes. But that also applied to ‘Waterworld’, and the audience did not go for that either.

Featuring wild card winners and low-powered superstars, this World Series was always challenged to capture provincial fans in coastal markets. However, the first three games were convincing, and an Arizona victory in Game 4 would have made the Series go at least six games for the fifth straight year.

Now the Rangers are in the lead, three games to one, with a chance to capture their first title on Wednesday in Game 5. Fortunately, it’s a rematch of veteran starting pitchers, Nathan Eovaldi for Texas and Zac Gallen for Arizona. No openers this time.

The opener — before it was called that — was once a charming part of World Series history: 99 years ago, the Washington Senators started Game 7 with a little-used righty, Curly Ogden, hoping to entice the New York Giants to take their loading setup with left-handers. Ogden faced only two batters – so no three-batter minimum! – before giving way to a southpaw, and the Senators went on to win.

Now, of course, the opener is a common tactic, popularized by the Tampa Bay Rays, baseball’s low-budget learning laboratory. We’ve had bullpen games a few times in recent World Series — from the Rays and Dodgers in 2020 and the injury-ravaged Braves in 2021 — and the Diamondbacks embraced the idea for Game 4.

“You look at guys differently the whole game,” said Joe Mantiply, the left-hander who collected the first four outs for Arizona on Tuesday. “Any batter never sees the same man twice. Obviously what Ryne (Nelson) did tonight was huge; he stepped up and ate five innings for us. But the strategy is to limit the number of at-bats guys get from the same guy.”

When you look at the box score, you wonder why Nelson didn’t just start. Nelson was called up in the fourth inning with his team trailing by 10 runs and worked 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run and striking out six with no walks. That would have been a credible start.

Nelson made 27 starts this season and had a 5.31 ERA – not great, but better than Brandon Pfaadt’s 5.72. Pfaadt has mostly thrived as a starter this postseason, but Nelson is buried in the bullpen and has struggled in the playoffs.

Nelson acknowledged that he was throwing himself out of a bigger role; After being demoted to the minors in August, he didn’t show enough down the stretch to be trusted as a starter. If he had, his effort in Game 4 might have mattered more.

“That’s the frustrating part for me,” Nelson said. “If I had earned that, maybe this game would have ended differently.”

Without a starter for Game 4, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo needed his second-line relievers to keep the game close until he could call up his trusted late crew: Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald. When Texas unloaded on Mantiply, Miguel Castro, Kyle Nelson and Luis Frías – aided by a Christian Walker error in the third – Lovullo never had the chance.

Lovullo is secure enough to explain his moves candidly; he knows he doesn’t have all the answers. If he knew Nelson could pitch that long and that well, couldn’t he have started him and avoided the mess that unfolded?

“You look at it a little differently when you know what the outcome is,” Lovullo said. “And maybe he was an option for us after an opener. Maybe he was an option for us to start the baseball game. But he did his job and didn’t surprise me. I just know there were some shaky outings in the postseason and we tried to protect him a little bit, build his confidence and get him in the right spot. And today that was certainly the case.”

The Diamondbacks won their bullpen game against Philadelphia in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, although the Phillies scored on four of their relievers and Craig Kimbrel blew the save. Lovullo took the risk again and paid for it at a loss – and an ugly one at that.

“It wasn’t your traditional World Series game with a lot of World Series moments,” he admitted, adding that he was simply trying to find the best way to win a game.

“We know we have our three starting pitchers ready for the next three days, and this is exactly where we have been as an organization to have to do something like this. But the game is a little different than it was in 1975, when I watched the Big Red Machine against the Boston Red Sox. That was a completely different feeling.”

The epic sixth game from 1975, back then Carlton Fisk swung his home run fair in the 12th inning was actually a bit of a bullpen parade for Cincinnati. Manager Sparky Anderson pulled his starter after two innings and set a record by using seven relievers in a World Series game.

But the drama that night was so thick, the performances so dazzling, that the pitch changes only increased the tension. This one, on the other hand, was a bust – partly because of some bad Texas pitching at the end, but mostly because the World Series was supposed to be better than this.

There’s a fine line between strategy and manipulation, and right now a bullpen game just feels wrong.

“I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of it this season,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s done a lot, but I understand that if you don’t have a starter who fits that box, you have to do it, you have to adapt to your club.

“I’m not saying it’s not good. You’re in a World Series; you have to do what you can to win a ball game. But I’m saying it in general – and that’s been my thinking over the years, because I think fans love matchups.

Maybe the Rangers would have hit Ryne Nelson if he had started; there is much more stress in a draw than in a blowout. Or maybe Nelson would have etched his name in World Series history. Either way, it would have been fun to find out.

(Top photo of Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo removing Ryne Nelson in the ninth inning: Harry How/Getty Images)