The Astros announced last night that Lance McCullers will take the ball in today’s Game 4 of the ALCS. When asked why he chose McCullers over Brad Peacock, A.J. Hinch responded with a simple answer: “He’s really good.”

McCullers certainly has been really good at times, and he was one of the AL’s best pitchers in the first half of the season, running a 3.05 ERA/2.74 FIP/2.74 xFIP before the All-Star break. But back problems put him on the DL a few times in the second half, and when he did pitch, he wasn’t particularly effective, running an 8.23 ERA/4.29 FIP/4.58 xFIP. At the end of July, I noted that the Astros had a Lance McCullers problem, and they never really got it fixed.

If the Astros were convinced that McCullers was healthy and back to his first-half form, they would have started him in the ALDS. Instead, they went with Peacock as their 4th starter in that series, and used McCullers in relief when that didn’t go well. So why are they showing confidence today in a guy who hasn’t gotten hitters out regularly in several months?

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I have a handful of rules I try to abide as an everyday writer. For example, I try not to pick favorites. My job isn’t to have any favorites. My job is to try to be as objective as possible. I also think it’s vitally important to not tell people how they ought to feel. This is sports. You’re in it for your own reasons. It’s not my business to dictate how you consume your chosen form of entertainment. You should get from baseball whatever you want to get. You should feel about baseball however you want to feel.

That being said, now I’m going to cross myself. I’m going to violate one of my own rules. Let’s focus on Todd Frazier’s early three-run homer in Monday’s Game 3. The internet response was fairly consistent: joke of a stadium, and/or the ball is juiced. The response was uniformly derisive. I get it, because I felt the same way! But I’ve come all the way around, and I’d like to encourage you to do the same, if you can. That wasn’t a home run to be mocked. That was a home run to be celebrated. For Todd Frazier, it was a good piece of hitting.

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The narrative of this postseason has been the ubiquity of the reliever, the increased tendency of teams to use their bullpens early and often. To a certain extent, that narrative is grounded in reality. We saw it right away in the American League Wild Card Game, for example, when the Yankees’ Luis Severino recorded only a single out and then a quartet of New York relievers pitched what was essentially an impromptu bullpen game. Combine that with the paltry two innings that Ervin Santana procured for the Twins and just 13.5% of the innings in that game were completed by starting pitchers.

The next night played out similarly, as Jon Gray and Zack Greinke survived just five half-innings between them, or 29.4% of the game’s total.

So, yes, relief pitchers have played a major role in the postseason. The use of bullpens, however, might not represent the greatest break from tradition. To quote a powerful sorcerer, things aren’t always what they seem.

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My wife and I were driving from the west side of Cleveland to my parents’ place on the east side of the city over the weekend. During a lull in the in-car conversation, I elected to carry out a small-sample experiment.

Before I detail the finer points of that experiment, though, a bit of context. As you’re likely aware, there’s been much discussion about and handwringing over the increasing frequency of the Three True Outcomes in the game, over the decline of balls in play, and, by extension, the greater amounts of downtime between moments of action.

Consider this remarkable nugget from Dan Hirsch:

What we see here is an effect with a number of causes: fewer balls in play, greater stretches of time between pitches, and longer commercial breaks. It took John Lackey about five minutes to throw six pitches on Sunday night.

That’s a remarkable trend, and I think we all understand why the commissioner’s office has been concerned about the dwindling number of balls in play while also wanting to experiment with pitch clocks and pace rules.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Ben’s wedding weekend, the outfield-wall padding at Minute Maid Park, the rapid repair of a behind-home-plate sign, and a very long pause between pitches, then discuss the first four games of the championship series, including Joe Maddon’s decision-making in Game 2, the Cubs’ moribund offense, the pivotal plays of the first two games of the ALCS, the excellence of Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, the rest of the Astros’ rotation, Aaron Judge’s strike zone, and more.

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Episode 776
Mike Hattery is a contributor to Cleveland sports weblog Waiting for Next Year and served as FanGraphs’ writer-in-residence for the month of September. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 1 hr 5 min play time.)

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In Saturday’s Game 2, David Robertson relieved Tommy Kahnle, who had relieved Luis Severino. Robertson worked two shutout innings, and the first of them was the bottom of the seventh, during which Robertson threw 13 pitches. Here is a log of what they were.

1. breaking ball
2. breaking ball
3. breaking ball
4. breaking ball
5. breaking ball
6. breaking ball
7. breaking ball
8. breaking ball
9. breaking ball
10. breaking ball
11. breaking ball
12. breaking ball
13. breaking ball

Robertson’s first pitch in the bottom of the eighth was a fastball. It was taken for a strike.

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We all know that John Lackey’s 1-0 sinker down and in to Justin Turner last night was deposited by the Dodgers third baseman into the outfield seats, resulting in a walk-off win for the home team in Game 2 of National League Championship Series. It’s possible, however, that the Cubs actually lost the game a moment before that — not when Turner’s fly ball cleared the outfield fence, but when Lackey and catcher Willson Contreras agreed on that particular pitch. Because, as good as Justin Turner was in 2016, he was better in 2017 and all the improvements he made in between helped prepare him for Lackey’s 1-0 offering.

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During the Astros’ walk-off win on Saturday, Justin Verlander threw a 124-pitch complete game, which I didn’t think was allowed. Verlander piled up 13 strikeouts, and, of those, nine came on sliders. Verlander threw 39 sliders in all, 30 of which went for strikes, in large part because the Yankees swung at the slider 27 times. Verlander’s always been known for his fastball, and, in Game 2, the heat was there from start to finish, but the slider appeared overwhelming, with the Yankees having absolutely no answer.

This part’s almost obligatory. Let’s watch a couple strikeout sliders, if only just for the memories.

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