Savor today. It will be the last four-game day of baseball this year. 

The playoffs have featured a lot of fun baseball. There have already been more blown saves than all of last year’s postseason. Since managers are reluctant to let starters go longer than four innings, maybe five, nearly half of the innings in these critical games are in the hands of a parade of bullpen arms. 

The more arms you run out, the more you run the risk of one of those arms not being on. And that gives teams the chance to come back.

In Game 1 of the Mets-Phillies series, for example, Phillies ace Zack Wheeler was suffocating the Mets offense, giving up just one hit in seven innings, striking out nine. Once the Phillies pulled him out of the game, Mets hitters exhaled, then proceeded to score six runs. 

It’s happening all over. Relievers are getting overworked and getting hit and getting scored on. Baseball is enamored with the idea that a starter cannot face a lineup the third time around because by that time, hitters are familiar with the starter and have an advantage. Yet, they are perfectly willing to run the same bullpen arm out night after night, so hitters can get familiar with them. With the game on the line.

Even though it’s bad baseball, it’s great for baseball. There’s nothing as fun as watching a late-inning offense, coming from behind, never saying die. 

The deeper a team goes, the more their bullpens will get overworked. The more they are overworked, the more the opposing hitters face them, learn them, then hit them.

So, here’s to the blown save. It makes playoff games fun to watch

*****  
TODAY’S GAMES: 

2:08, Detroit 1 @ Cleveland 1, TBS

4:08, Philadelphia 1 @ New York 2, FS1

6:08, New York 1 @ Kansas City, TBS

8:08, Los Angeles 1 @ San Diego 2, FS1