This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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The general third-time penalty (TTP) isn’t some esoteric bit of data yanked from a darkened cave two weeks ago, nor are Severino’s struggles when left in a game to face hitters a third time. You’re carrying 13 pitchers, there’s an off day tomorrow. If you take nothing else from this year’s postseason coverage, take this: There is no such thing as “cruising.” A pitcher’s performance to date in a game is in no way predictive of what his performance will be for the rest of the game. Luis Severino had no business pitching to Bryce Harper, and that’s the biggest managerial error of the playoffs to date. The series is now tied.
Evaluating these decisions in the playoffs can become a little results-oriented. Over the weekend, we saw managers lift their starters and get burned, and leave their starters in and get burned. The players determine who wins and loses, and the managers just nudge the percentages a little bit. Watch the at-bats these guys, particularly in the Mets/Phillies series, took in the late innings, and appreciate the level of skill it takes to hit well in today’s game. The back-and-forth in Philly yesterday, from Harper and Castellanos, to Brandon Nimmo, to Stott, to Mark Vientos (!), and finally back to Castellanos...that was as good as it gets for drama, for quality at-bats, for baseball.
