The Brewers Used a LOOGY as a Starter

On Monday night in St. Louis, left-hander Dan Jennings received the start for the Milwaukee Brewers. It was notable because, of his 381 prior MLB games, he’d entered every one as a reliever. Outside of a few rehab games, Jennings’ previous 193 appearances in the minors had come in a relief capacity, as well. With the exception of 13 starts at Low-A back in 2008, in fact, Jennings had worked in relief for a decade solid.

Jennings’ appearance as a starter on Monday isn’t notable for what it says about Jennings, though. It’s notable for what it might reveal about the Milwaukee Brewers. Jennings didn’t pitch deep into the game. He didn’t exhibit an expanded repertoire. Instead, as he has on multiple occasions this year, he faced a single batter, recorded a lone out, and then departed the game in favor of a right-hander. Even with the use of an Opener spreading rapidly throughout the game, though, this was rare.

Chase Anderson had originally been on turn to start that night. After a solid 2017 campaign, Anderson has prevented runs well this year, too, recording a 3.93 ERA in 158.0 innings. He’s striking out fewer batters, though, walking more of them, and allowing more home runs. He’s been particularly vulnerable at Miller Park, which is friendly to hitters. As of Monday, he hadn’t pitched more than five innings in his last six starts and compiled only 7.2 innings over his previous two starts combined, putting up a 5.81 FIP and 4.57 ERA since the beginning of August. With one week to go and playoff ramifications attached to every game, Craig Counsell and the Brewers faced the choice of going with Anderson or doing something else. They chose something else.

The team could have opted to pitch Gio Gonzalez on regular rest, but that would have meant using Jhoulys Chacin on short rest the next day or relying on the bullpen to take care of that game. The team opted to get the bullpen game out of the way. The Cardinals’ lineup presented the team with an interesting opportunity. Over the 10 previous games, with 80 starting lineup spots to give out, the club had used left-handed batters in only 15 of them — including eight for leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter, one for Matt Adams, and seven for Kolten Wong, who had been out of the lineup the previous two days with an injury. That meant that, no matter how the Cardinals’ lineup looked on Monday, it was likely to include just one left-hander and that lefty would likely bat leadoff in the form of Matt Carpenter.

Dan Jennings came on to face Matt Carpenter, got him out, and then left the game. It’s not an unprecedented event. A search of the Play-Index at Baseball-Reference reveals 50 instances of a pitcher starting a game, throwing to one batter, recording one out, and leaving the game. An examination of all of the recent instances, however, indicates that all the short appearances were due either to rain or injury. Going back past 20 years or so, a vast majority of the occurrences were for starters who were on their normal schedule, so injury or rain delay seems like a likely occurrence. There were a few notable exceptions, however, where it seems like a one-out strategy was actually utilized on purpose.

• On August 20, 1912, Lefty Schegg of the Washington Senators made his first MLB appearance and one of just two in his career. He started the game and faced one batter, fellow left-hander Buddy Ryan, and retired him. Hall of Famer Walter Johnson came on and finished the game against Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the Cleveland team. The Senators won, 4-2.
• On August 8, 1936, Joe Cronin managed the Red Sox against the Washington Senators. Jack Russell was primarily used as a reliever that season for the Senators and then the Red Sox, but he did start a few games for both clubs. In one such start for the Red Sox against his former team, the right-handed Russell faced righty Ben Chapman to start the game. He was relieved by aptly named Lefty Grove for the next batter, left-handed Buddy Lewis. Gomez was used as a starter nearly all year long and appeared to be on his regular turn to pitch. The Red Sox went on to lose 2-0.

Based on the box scores, it looks like both of those situations are similar to Craig Counsell’s use of Dan Jennings on Monday. Going over some of the other box scores, there are a few other games worth mentioning, including some unusual doubleheader strategies. It’s possible I’m missing some notable appearances, but here a few.

• On April 21, 1921, right-hander Suds Sutherland started the game but pitched to only one batter after Cleveland loaded their lineup with lefties. Of those lefties, two never actually batted and were removed before their turn while a third, leadoff hitter Charlie Jamieson, only batted to start the game before being removed.
• Similarly, on May 26, 1971, righty Al Santorini of the San Diego Padres started the first game of a doubleheader, but pitched to only one Houston Astros batter in a lefty-heavy lineup. Lefty Dave Roberts pitched the rest of the game, but two of the lefties in the lineup never actually came to bat. The Padres lost. Santorini started the second game of the doubleheader, and the Padres lost that one, too.
• In perhaps the strangest attempt to gain an advantage, on May 20, 1950, manager Leo Durocher started lefty-pitching, righty-batting Monty Kennedy in the first game of a doubleheader against righty Ewell Blackwell, but then immediately relieved Kennedy with lefty-pitching, lefty-batting Dave Koslo so that Koslo would have the platoon advantage when batting against Blackwell. The Giants did win 8-0, though Koslo went 0-4 with two strikeouts. Kennedy then went on to pitch the second leg of the doubleheader and the Giants won that game, too.

Relative to how other clubs have used Openers, Jennings’s case is a bit different. Scheduled starter Chase Anderson didn’t enter the game once Jennings left, and Freddy Peralta, who did come in, still had to face the heart of the Cardinals’ order in the first inning. There was also no expectation that Peralta would pitch enough innings to face the top of the order a second time through (but their third time up). He would be relieved before then.

In any case, the move mostly paid off. Carpenter grounded out to second in his first plate appearance, and though he doubled off Peralta in his second at-bat, he was forced to face Josh Hader in the fifth inning and struck out. The Cardinals eventually took the lead against Hader, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad strategy.

This situation might have some utility for the Brewers in the playoffs. If the team makes the Wild Card game and faces the Cardinals, then Matt Carpenter is likely to be at the top of the order. If they were to face the Rockies, lefty Charlie Blackmon is likely to lead off. While September’s expanded rosters allow for a greater margin of error, a one-game Wild Card matchup still permits more relievers, as teams need just one starter instead of four in later rounds. The Brewers conducted an interesting experiment somewhat necessitated by a lack of starting options, the unique circumstances of the September roster, and the Cardinals’ lineup.

It’s probably good for the Brewers to experiment with it, to see if they want to do it again on a bigger stage. Their team is likely a bit more comfortable with the strategy, though using it again with one of their regular starters might not be worth the disruption it creates, particularly if the leadoff hitter reaches bases and the scheduled starter is forced to begin his appearance from the stretch. The risk of having a team’s leadoff hitter moved to the second spot in the lineup also mitigates a potential benefit of using a reliever in this manner.