The Oakland Athletics have never been the type of baseball franchise afraid to take risks, going all the way back 16 years ago when A's former general manager Billy Beane first utilized the Moneyball approach in Major League Baseball. Oakland has long embraced innovation. So when the team announced that they would be starting their relief pitcher Liam Hendriks in Wednesday's Wild Card game against the New York Yankees, well, it was perfectly Oakland.
It's not even that the A's are testing out some zany, new approach, the team has no other option and in a win-or-go-home game, you have to do what you have to do. Plus, the "bullpenning" strategy has gotten a bit more use over the last couple of years, with the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays being among the teams to try it.
But Oakland's manager Bob Melvin has been bullpenning strictly out of necessity this season because of injuries to his starting rotation. Back on Sept. 21, our own Matt Snyder predicted that the A's would most likely turn to an opener if they reach the AL Wild Card game. Our Jonah Keri last year suggested more teams should embrace bullpenning in the postseason.
The A's have had 10 of their starters go on the disabled list this season, five of them were lost to Tommy John surgery. The setbacks didn't ruin their season, instead they went on to grab a spot in the playoffs before going a MLB-best 63-29 in the second half of the season.
"We've had bullpen days this year based on injury, based on a starter coming out of a game early," Melvin told the media during Tuesday's workout day.
"With as many injuries as we have had to our starters, we are trying to find a way to get a little bit better. There's been some trial and error with this. But I think the reason that we started looking at this is because we've had so many injuries in our rotation, and we're just trying to do the best possible thing that we think for a particular day."
Let's break down three reasons why the Oakland A's are doing the right thing by using an opener the AL Wild Card game:
1. They've had proven success when bullpenning
The A's aren't going into this game with their fingers crossed and eyes closed, hoping that their pitching strategy works. They actually have had proven success when bullpenning this season, even against the powerful Yankees lineup.
On Sept. 4 when the A's were facing the Yankees, Hendriks got a three-up, three-down first inning and then Daniel Mengden worked 4 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit.
With none of the team's five starters to begin the season on the wild-card roster, Melvin will have to rely on Shawn Kelley, Lou Trivino, Fernando Rodney, Jeurys Familia, Cory Gearrin and Blake Treinen to handle the remainder of Wednesday's game. An All-Star this season, Treinen could even be asked to pitch multiple innings. He's 9-2 with a 0.78 ERA and has 100 strikeouts in 80 innings this year.
Here's what Treinen had to say when asked about the bullpenning strategy:
"Our job in the bullpen as players, as starters or whatever the role may be, is to get outs. That's what we get paid to do. That's what we've worked our whole lives to do. The whole season we've been doing it. If you get caught up in anything more than that, I think it's kind of silly. So just focus on what we're here to accomplish, to win a ballgame."
This season, the Oakland bullpen (3.37) is only second to the Houston Astros (3.03) and Chicago Cubs (3.35) when it comes to ERA and second (45) to the Rays for the most wins (55). Oakland's unconventional strategy has successfully gotten them this far so if the relievers can force New York's offense quiet on Wednesday, their bullpenning might just pay off.
2. Hendriks is Oakland's best starter without actually being a starter
Back in June, Hendriks was designated for assignment and cleared waivers, but now he is going to start in the biggest game of the year for Oakland. And although he's not even a traditional starter, the 29-year-old right-hander has served as one in eight of his 25 regular-season appearances, logging a 2.08 ERA and 7:3 K:BB across 8.2 innings in those outings.
He will be just the fourth pitcher to start a postseason game after a regular season of no wins, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Virgil Trucks started twice for the Detroit Tigers in the 1945 World Series after returning from World War II and making one regular-season appearance. The others to start in the postseason after no regular-season wins were Yovani Gallardo for the Brewers in 2008 when he returned from a torn knee ligament, and Chris Carpenter for the Cardinals in 2012 when he came back from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.
In his Sept. 4 outing against the Yankees, Hendriks threw a perfect first inning on 11 pitches, striking out Brett Gardner, followed by a Stanton flyout and an Andrew McCutchen groundout. Since Oakland began using him in this role at the start of September, Hendriks has allowed just two earned runs in nine such outings, both came on Sept. 1 during his first start using the strategy. In his last seven starts, he has pitched seven shutout innings and only allowing four hits.
3. The A's play well on the road
There is no team in the postseason that has hit better on the road than the Athletics. Oakland leads all all playoff teams in road hits, road homers, road slugging and scoring and it ranks second in road on-base percentage.
Wednesday's Wild Card game is at Yankee Stadium, but this team's won 47 games on the road. They even set an major-league record by homering in 25 straight games on the road, so the Yankees' home-field advantage might not be as advantageous as it could be if they were facing any other team but the A's.
The A's have not been to the ALDS since 2013, and string of relievers might be the key to success on Wednesday. Whatever it takes to win in October, right?
