PHOENIX — Game four 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 by the winning team, 12 hits by the losing team, 13 pitchers total – and without the pitch clock it might have taken 14 hours.
It’s a modern innovation that made the Texas Rangers’ 11-7 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks bearable: it was over in less than 200 minutes. On the other hand, that was also the case with “Waterworld,” and the audience didn’t like that either.
With wild card winners and underperforming superstars, attracting regional fans in coastal markets was always going to be a challenge in this World Series. However, the first three games were compelling and an Arizona win in Game 4 would have ensured the series would last at least six games for the fifth straight year.
Now the Rangers are up three games to one and have a chance to clinch their first title in Game 5 on Wednesday. Luckily, it’s a rematch of veteran starters Nathan Eovaldi for Texas and Zac Gallen for Arizona. There are no openers this time.
The opener — before it was called that — was once a charming part of World Series lore: 99 years ago, the Washington Senators started Game 7 with a little-used right-hander, Curly Ogden, hoping to persuade the New York Giants to to strengthen their lineup with left-handers. Ogden only faced two batters – no three batter minimum! — before giving way to a left-handed hitter and the Senators ultimately won.
Now, of course, opening ball is a common tactic popularized by the Tampa Bay Rays, baseball’s low-budget learning laboratory. We had bullpen games a few times in the last World Series — from the Rays and Dodgers in 2020 and the injury-plagued Braves in 2021 — and the Diamondbacks embraced the Game 4 idea.
“You give guys different looks the whole game,” said Joe Mantiply, the left-hander who collected the first four outs for Arizona on Tuesday. “Any hitter never really sees the same guy twice. Obviously what Ryne (Nelson) did tonight was tremendous; He stepped up and ate five innings for us. But the strategy is to limit the number of hitters that bounce off the same guy.”
Looking at the box score makes you wonder why Nelson didn’t just start. Nelson was called up in the fourth 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 was successful this postseason primarily as a starter, but Nelson was buried in the bullpen and struggled in the playoffs.
Nelson admitted that he had distanced himself from a larger role; After he was demoted to the minors in August, he didn’t show enough performance in the home stretch to be trustworthy as a regular player. Had he done that, his appearance in Game 4 might have been more meaningful.
“That’s the frustrating part for me,” Nelson said. “If I had deserved that, this game might have turned out differently.”
Without a starter for Game 4, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo needed his secondary replacements to keep the game close until he could call up his trusted late teams: Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald. When Texas got past Mantiply, Miguel Castro, Kyle Nelson and Luis Frías – helped by a Christian Walker error in the third period – Lovullo had no chance.
Marcus Semien hit a home run to give Texas a 10-0 lead in the third inning. (Joe Camporeale/USA Today)
Lovullo is confident enough to openly explain his moves; He knows he doesn’t have all the answers. If he had known Nelson could pitch for so long – and so well – couldn’t he have started him and avoided the chaos 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 opening game. Maybe he was an option for us to start the baseball game. But he did his job and didn’t surprise me. All I know is there were some shaky games in the postseason and we tried to protect him a little bit, get his confidence up and get him in the right spot. And today it certainly was.”
The Diamondbacks won their bullpen game against Philadelphia in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, despite the Phillies having four of their relievers score and Craig Kimbrel blowing the save. Lovullo took the risk again and paid for it with a loss – and an unsightly one.
“It wasn’t a traditional World Series game with a lot of World Series moments,” he acknowledged, adding that he was just trying to find the best way to win a game.
“We know we have our three starting players lined up for the next three days, and that’s exactly where we as an organization needed to do something like this. But the game is a little different than it was in 1975 when I saw the Big Red Machine against the Boston Red Sox. It was a completely different feeling.”
The epic sixth game in 1975, when Carlton Fisk hit his home run fair in the 12th inning, was actually something 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 evening was so powerful, the performances so stunning, that changes in pitch only heightened the tension. In contrast, this game was a dud — partly because of Texas’ poor pitching at the end, but mostly because the World Series was supposed to be better.
There’s a fine line between strategy and manipulation, and at this stage a bullpen game just feels wrong.
“I’m honestly not a big fan of it during the season,” Texas coach Bruce Bochy said. “A lot is being done, but I understand that if you don’t have a starter there who fits in that spot, you have to do it, you have to adapt to your club.
“I’m not saying it’s not a good thing. You’re in a World Series; You have to do your best to win a ball game. But I say it in general – and this has been my opinion over the years, because I think fans love duels.”
Maybe the Rangers would have taken Ryne Nelson if he had started; There is a lot more stress in a drawn game than in a losing game. Or perhaps Nelson would have etched his name into World Series lore. In any case, it would have been fun to find out.
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(Top photo of Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo striking out Ryne Nelson in the ninth inning: Harry How / Getty Images)