Read about the management in the divisional series second game for each ALDS matchup. Includes exclusive interview with Connor Oliver, Pittsburgh Pirates Pitching Prospect.
Today was an unexpected turn of events in both games. Game one saw the game be delayed for over three hours, while Game two saw a massive comeback from the Yankees, whose offense looked nearly non-existent for the first two games of the series. Once I saw that Game one was delayed… I decided to reach out to a high school teammate AND friend of mine, Connor Oliver, who is now a Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospect, who has started and relieved games in the minors. I wanted to hear his perspective of how a delay could impact a pitcher not only in that game, but in the games after that.
Interview with Connor Oliver
Ian – “Connor, I appreciate you taking the time to answer some questions for me. As a professional player, how would a rain delay affect you as a starter?”
Connor – “As a starter, it sort of ruins your outing to be honest. Delays before the game aren’t as bad because you have 45 minutes from the time you get notified (of the game starting) to get going again. Usually, you’re already moving around at that point, too.”
Ian – “Got it, that makes sense to me. What about rain delays during the middle of starts? That’s got to be tough both physically with the adrenaline rush, but also mentally having to push through that.”
Connor – “Delays in the middle of the game tend to throw everything off because it’s unlikely the starter goes back out to throw, just with all of the sitting that’s done during the delay.”
Ian – “You’ve been called a “Swiss army knife” because of your ability to start and come out of the bullpen. How would a delay affect your relief appearance?”
Connor – “It really doesn’t make too much of a difference. Your preparation doesn’t change much, either way you’re playing catch 2-3 hours prior to the game being played. It’s annoying more than anything because instead of going in at 8pm, you’re looking at 9pm or 10pm or even later (depending on the length of the delay).”
Ian – “With coming into pitch later in the game, would relievers feel more of those side effects of the delay maybe the day after?”
Connor – “It throws off the sleep schedule and recovery schedule for both the starter and the reliever, so they both feel it.”
Ian – “Thank you again Connor, and hopefully you have a great offseason this year and continue the road to the show next year!”
Mariners vs Tigers
The reason I spoke to Connor Oliver about the effects of a rain delay was because of the first game today. The Tigers and Mariners were delayed for close to three hours. The storyline here was the starting pitching.
This was part of the reason Jack Flaherty was taken out after striking out Victor Robles. It wasn’t a decision I agreed with. Flaherty bounced back from the homer and the walk with a strikeout. At that point it was a runner on first with 1 out and I would have liked to see Flaherty face JP Crawford again. Nonetheless, manager AJ Hinch replaced Flaherty and Tommy Kahnle walked Crawford and later allowed the 4th run to score. Logan Gilbert went 6 strong innings allowing just 1 earned run for the Mariners, adding 7 strikeouts. Ultimately, it looked like Logan Gilbert was able to adapt to his situation better than Jack Flaherty, which is a huge testament to Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth.
I honestly didn’t question any of the decisions that Dan Wilson made until the last inning. I did not agree with bringing in Caleb Ferguson. The Tigers had their full arsenal of pinch hitters, and I think Andres Munoz would have been better at adapting his plan to them. An 8-1 game can change very quickly, as seen by the Tigers quickly putting up 3 runs before Ferguson could get an out. Andres Munoz then had to enter the game in a muddy situation, when he could have worked a normal inning to begin with.
The starting pitching and bullpen have been series winning for the Mariners. The Tigers have not executed as well as I thought they would in this series, as evident by Tarik Skubal and Flaherty picking up a no-decision and a loss, respectively. So far, the Mariners skipper Dan Wilson has pushed the right buttons, but I’m hesitant for the future of this postseason because of the bullpen decision in today’s game.
Blue Jays vs Yankees
Will Vladimir Guerrero Jr ever come back down to earth? He’s hitting like an alien. I wrote this in the first inning after Vladdy hit yet another home run to push the Blue Jays to an early lead. The Yankees did answer quickly with a run of their own in the first on a single by Giancarlo Stanton. I’m not sure how the Blue Jays have been able to do it, but in each game of this series, they have ambushed the starters of the Yankees. Carlos Rodon, who had been pitching well only managed to get through 2.1 innings giving up 6 earned runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. On the Blue Jays side… Shane Bieber went 2.2 innings of 5 hit, 2 earned run ball, with 2 strikeouts. The Blue Jays bullpen faltered, while the Yankees bullpen really flourished.
The Blue Jays bullpen combined for 7.1 innings giving up 5 earned runs with only 4 strikeouts. They gave up 7 hits as well. Meanwhile the Yankees bullpen did everything they could to make sure this went into a Game 4, holding the Blue Jays to only 3 hits in 6.2 innings with 9 strikeouts. For their efforts, Tim Hill picked up the win for the Yankees and David Bednar picked up the save. Both of them combined for no hits through 3 innings with 3 strikeouts.
I was watching the Baseball Today podcast featuring Trevor Plouffe and Chris Rose, and they were talking about manager Aaron Boone making lineup changes going into Game 3. After Game 2 Boone announced that he would be making at least one change to the lineup in game 3, and both Plouffe and Rose were pretty confident in the change being at first base, from Ben Rice to Paul Goldschmidt. I actually thought the same thing. Goldschmidt is a veteran with a lot of postseason experience. I was thinking that would be the main difference in the lineup and I even thought that Anthony Volpe could be on the bench for Amed Rosario or even Jose Caballero after going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts in game 2. In the series this far, Volpe is hitting 1/12 with 8 strikeouts. I think everyone seeing the starting lineup was shocked that there weren’t any changes to the lineup. Clearly it worked for the Yankees as they caught fire against the Blue Jays bullpen, but Boone went back on his comments after Game 2. Interesting.
Final Thoughts: The delay sucked for both the Tigers and the Mariners, but Dan Wilson had his team better prepared. The Yankees bounced back after going down 2-0 in the series AND after going down in the first inning of the game. The Yankees were resilient in game 3. Is it going to be the same resiliency in game 4? I think they have it in them with Cam Schlittler on the mound. I think the Tigers lose game 4 and bow out of the playoffs.
We have 4 games slated for tomorrow. I’ll be following all of them and bringing you a recap afterwards. Thanks for following the MLB Playoffs with Behind the Coaching!
