By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
DEC. 2, 2022 | Fans of baseball will tell you that there is a lot of strategy in that game. It’s a simple game, which basically boils down to hitting a thrown object with a specially-designed stick. One incident from the recent World Series bears out the strategy argument.
Let’s review the recent Series. Philadelphia won the first game in Houston, but the Astros evened the Series in the second game. Then in the third game the Phillies really pounded the Astros 7-0 for the first game in Philadelphia. Not only that, but the normally explosive Astros seemed to balk, and it looked like the Phillies might win two more games in their home town and waltz through the Series.
But the Astros’ Dusty Baker is a sound manager. After all, he is the guy who, in 25 years in managing, had won 2,903 regular season games, and taken five different teams to division titles. He obviously knows the game well, something that losing managers do not. But the one achievement he never attained was being on a World Series championship team, not as a player with the Braves or Dodgers, nor ever as a manager. That’s why many were pulling for him and his Astros to take the Series.
Baker, via Wikipedia.
Baker had learned in his 73 years that the fourth game of the Series is often the decisive game, no matter how many games are played. So here was his strategy that turned the Series around and gave him that championship ring.
He held back his best pitcher, Cristian Javier, and didn’t start him until the fourth game. His 2022 record was 11-9, but Javier has held opponents to a .178 batting average in his career, the lowest among all pitchers with at least 300 innings pitched since 2020.
And what did Javier do in that fourth game? He pitched no-hit ball for six innings, struck out nine Phillies, and then turned the game over to Baker’s strong bullpen. In turn, the pen pitchers also held the Phillies hitless, striking out five more, in a complete no-hit game, winning 5-0.
And it evened the Series at two games each. It turned the Series around, with the Astros winning the second game in Philadelphia, then returning home to the deciding game and the title.
Of course, Dusty Baker had strong pitching from his entire staff, which whiffed 71 Philly hitters, a new record. And his own batters were strong in the last three games.
The key was that Baker kept his best pitcher strong, asking him to win that crucial fourth game!
Many managers’ traditional strategy, when he has a particularly strong pitcher in the World Series, is to use that guy all he can. They would put on the mound his best pitcher in game one, game four and if needed in game seven. Let the opposition face his best as much as possible.
But instead, Baker holds his best pitcher back, so that he will be entirely rested for game four, then sees him pitching no-hit ball for six innings, and ends up winning the key game.
Of course, it helps to have other key starters, the strong Justin Verlander, and Framber Valdez, plus a solid bullpen.
And as for Dusty Baker? Some have said that if he won the Series and his first ring in all his baseball days, that as the oldest manager in baseball, he might not be back for another long baseball season.
Now we learn that Dusty Baker is coming back for another season, saying: “If I win one, I might as well win two!”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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