Now for possibly the first time in MLB playoff history, Saturday’s game six of the ALCS will feature a bullpen game. Remember, things got thrown off when game four was rained out in New York on Thursday.
Then in the wake of CC Sabathia’s tearful goodbye, the Yankees refused to say die on Friday night. Furthermore, they stacked four runs on Justin Verlander in the first inning. Fortunately for them, those runs held up.
Equally important, three of those runs came off the bat of Aaron Hicks. Hicks homered in what was possibly the biggest at-bat of the season for New York.
Hicks. Off the stick. #NextManUp pic.twitter.com/5F2CQy7LOF
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 18, 2019
Now, the two teams are forced with the decision of starting their aces in a game six. However, both managers will save Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino respectively in case of a decisive game seven. Truly, it’s a game of chess and it comes to a head on Saturday night.
All of this gives us the first bullpen game in MLB playoff history. AJ Hinch spoke about this in the wake of the Astros game five defeat.
“I said it would be a bullpen game tomorrow, and I’m unlikely to use Cole, correct,” Hinch said, in uncharacteristically brief comments.
He expanded upon his answer, sounding a little irritated to talk about it at all.
“I may say I’m doing a bullpen game, and Urquidy goes out there at some point during the game and I give him five or six innings,” Hinch said earlier in the week. “I’m not sure that [bullpen game label] would really apply. At the same time, [my] hope is I wouldn’t have to use nine pitchers. That’s not often ideal, because what if the game goes 10, 11, 12, 13 innings. Unexpected things happen in regular games, let alone bullpen games.”
Without question, this has been a good series. And if the Yankees can extend this to a game seven, it will have been a great series. Finally, what MLB billed as ‘the big one’ has entertained in terms of a postseason series, albeit in several unconventional ways.
