Fansided

World Series: 5 biggest questions facing Astros, Nationals

By David Salituro

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 15: Gerrit Cole #45 of the Houston Astros celebrates retiring the side during the sixth inning against the New York Yankees in game three of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium on October 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 15: Gerrit Cole #45 of the Houston Astros celebrates retiring the side during the sixth inning against the New York Yankees in game three of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium on October 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
HOUSTON, TX – OCTOBER 10: Gerrit Cole #45 of the Houston Astros pitches in the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays during game five of the American League Divisional Series at Minute Maid Park on October 10, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX – OCTOBER 10: Gerrit Cole #45 of the Houston Astros pitches in the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays during game five of the American League Divisional Series at Minute Maid Park on October 10, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /

2. Is starting pitching making a comeback?

The 2019 MLB season will be remembered for two things, a record number of home runs and the emergence of openers.

Teams relied on their bullpen more than ever this season. Relief pitchers accounted for more than 18,000 innings pitched an increase of 3,000 from just five seasons ago. The role of the traditional starting pitcher, meanwhile, began to go the way of the woolly mammoth or the dodo bird.

In 2019, just fifteen pitchers threw more than 200 innings, which was actually an increase from 11 a year ago. Ten years ago, that number was 36. But if teams are going to go back to developing dependable starters, it will begin with this World Series.

The Nationals and Astros are throwback teams, in a way, because of their reliance on their starting rotations. Both ranked in the bottom third in terms of the number of innings from relievers. Of the 15 pitchers with more than 200 innings, five of them are in this series. Both teams featured five of the top-10 in the league in both WHIP and strikeouts.

Game 1 on Tuesday night has all the makings of a classic pitching duel. Gerrit Cole takes the mound for the Astros against Max Scherzer of the Nationals. Justin Verlander will be opposed by Stephen Strasburg in Game 2, while Game 3 will feature Zack Greinke and Patrick Corbin.

It’s in Game 4 when the Astros will likely go to a bullpen day, that Olney says gives the Nationals an advantage in this series.

“I think just starting pitching, just purely in that category, because the Nationals have a No. 4 starter and identified a guy they’re very comfortable with in Anibal Sanchez, and the Astros don’t have that guy, then I would give that to Washington,” he says. “You saw Sanchez pitching against the Cardinals, he’s looking terrific. So when we get to a fourth game, you would assume because of the fact that right now the Nationals rotation is a little bit deeper than they would have an advantage with that.”

If they want any hope of winning the opening game of the series tonight, the Nationals have to do what neither the Rays nor the Yankees managed to do, and that is solve Cole. Cole has given up just one run over three starts in this postseason; in the LCS era, only three pitchers have had a lower ERA than Cole’s 0.40 with at least three starts in a single postseason.

Nationals hitters are batting a collective .217 in their careers against Cole. Anthony Rendon, their MVP-candidate third baseman, has had the most success, with five hits in 13 career at-bats against the right-hander. Against Verlander, the Nationals catching duo of Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki have a combined 85 at-bats and are hitting .306. Turner and Soto have never faced him, though, while Rendon doesn’t have an at-bat against Verlander since 2013.

Home/MLB Postseason