The outcome of this game was hinted at with the very first batter of the game.
Rangers starter Andrew Heaney got ahead 1-2 on the Twins Manuel Margot and tried to find the out pitch to put him away. And tried and tried and tried.
He fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch. Ten pitches in all, before finally flying out to left.
Heaney’s pitch count after one batter was fifteen. In the era where pitch count is all that matters, you knew he wasn’t long for this game.
It all leads to an interesting story out of Major League Baseball headquarters. MLB want to restore the power of the pitching matchups, which has long been a major draw. Who couldn’t forget those classic matchups like Bob Gibson vs Juan Marichal, or Greg Maddux versus Pedro Martinez, where you saw the matchup in the paper and you went and bought a ticket. It was what made baseball special. The matchup was the draw.
But the game has evolved to where starters rarely go more than four innings. So most of the game is a matchup of bullpens. The classic Matt Festa vs Caleb Thielbar matchup. It gives one goosebumps just thinking about it. Or is that the hives?
To try to restore some of the prestige back to the pitching matchup, and blunt the boredom that analytic departments have dulled the game with, MLB is kicking around a proposal that a starter must complete at least six innings.
Of course, there are some stipulations. One, if he’s injured. Two, if he gets to one hundred pitches before then. Three, if he’s allowed at least four earned runs.
The six-inning rule idea is a long way from being implemented. But other recent rules took time moving through the system as well, like the pitch clock, banning shifts, the three-batter minimum for relievers.
It’s an intriguing rule meant to make pitching relevant again in baseball. After all, there’s not a whole lot of motivation to see a Jacob deGrom vs Paul Skeens pitching matchup when you know it’s only going to last four innings.
Now, the way Andrew Heaney threw yesterday, he met that 100-pitch threshold after two batters.
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TODAY’S GAME: