Sea Change

Sea Change

Give the Cubs’ Jon Lester credit for taking notice.  “The game has definitely changed,” Lester said after the Cubs fell 4-1 to the Dodgers and now find themselves trailing Los Angeles two games to none in the NLCS.  “I would’ve thought [Dodgers’ starter] Rich [Hill] would have [gone]a couple more innings there, but the game has definitely changed on that aspect of it.”

What Lester means is that Hill was lifted after five innings of one-run ball on 79 pitches.  Lester lasted 1/3 of an inning less, yielding one run on 101 pitches.  What’s going on here?

Basically, managers are getting pitch-pitcher crazy.  They go through the regular season with five starters and seven relievers and suddenly find themselves down a reliever for the playoffs.  What’s a guy to do?  Why, make starters relieve, of course.

There’s nothing new in the idea; starters have always relieved in the World Series.  Only this isn’t the World Series, but the second playoff series on the way to it.  Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon has used Lester and Jose Quintana both as starters and relievers against the Nationals, and he’s used John Lackey twice to relieve against the Dodgers.  Lester was good, Quintana a wash and Lackey goes down as the guy who gave up a three-run walk-off Sunday night to Justin Turner.

In my humble opinion, starters should start and relievers relieve until you face elimination in the World Series.  Anything else is a roll of the dice, and Maddon is crapping out.