Managing in the playoffs is all about balancing immediate payoffs and long-term sustainability. Not ultra long-term, mind you, but managing a bullpen for a seven-game series is trickier than simply pressing the same buttons every day until you win or lose. ALCS Game 4 featured three momentous bullpen decisions. The managers chose differently; they both paid the price. In the end, the Yankees got the better of the Guardians in a 14-pitcher, three-and-a-half-hour, 14-run shootout. But a few early decisions absolutely shaped the way the game went, and so they take center stage here tonight.
No Rest for Cade Smith
Cade Smith was one of the best relievers in baseball this year. If he didn’t play on the same team as Emmanuel Clase, we’d call him a lockdown closer. Instead, he’s a dominant fireman, capable of coming in whenever Stephen Vogt needs him to ice the opposition. He pitched in all five games of the ALDS. He got the first game of this series off, but then he faced the meat of the Yankees lineup in Game 2 and Game 3. On came Smith, for the third time in four days. In an ideal world, Vogt would give Smith a day off. But the exigencies of the present outweighed the utopian ideal of reasonable rest, at least in Vogt’s mind.
The Other Guys
That blast stapled Aaron Boone to a 6-2 lead, but a panicked call to the bullpen for Holmes, who wasn’t getting the night off after all. That didn’t work out even a little. Holmes had no feel for the strike zone. He left everything up. He hung a slider to David Fry that befuddled Fry so much he took it for strike three. He hung one to José Ramírez, who slashed it to right for a run-scoring double. And then he left his sinker middle-high to Josh Naylor, who ripped it to the wall to drive two more home. That undid the advantage the Stanton home run had given the Yankees, making it a 6-5 ballgame.
No Rest for Emmanuel Clase, Either
Okay, this one wasn’t quite so tough of a decision. The game was tied heading into the ninth inning, so Clase came in to keep things that way. He gave up two homers last night, and he’s already given up more homers and earned runs this October than he did in the entire regular season. After a steal, Clase produced one of those 100-mph darts, but Brayan Rocchio couldn’t get a grip on it, and he wouldn’t have stopped the run from scoring anyway. Gleyber Torres tacked on an insurance run with a line drive single.
Both bullpens were wrecked, though New York’s is in slightly better shape, and there’s another game tomorrow. I wouldn’t bet against Smith and Clase appearing, even given how poorly they fared today.
Odds and Ends
– Both starters were coming off long rests – 25 days for Gavin Williams and 19 for Gil. They both looked rusty, and Williams was clearly only in for 10 batters; Vogt had no interest in letting Soto and Judge see him twice. Gil lasted a bit longer, but he couldn’t find his command, always a weakness and particularly so after so much time off.
– There were two bunts in this game, and I’m not sure which was worse. In the bottom of the fourth, Austin Hedges laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt… with no one on base, against a pitcher who had walked him his previous time up. Jazz Chisholm Jr. might have one-upped Hedges by dropping down a no-out bunt against Smith just before Stanton’s home run.
– Kahnle threw 18 pitches in the ninth inning, and all 18 were changeups.
