2017 World Series: The Astros' bullpen saved their best for Game 7 vs. Dodgers

The Houston bullpen struggled for most of the World Series, but they came up big in Game 7

LOS ANGELES-- The performance of the Astros' bullpen through the first six games of the 2017 World Series against the Dodgers was almost unthinkably grim. Coming into Game 7, the Houston relief corps had a 7.29 ERA, which was the third-worst World Series bullpen ERA ever (just the 1960 Pirates and 2011 Rangers had worse marks). 

As the series has unfolded, Astros manager A.J. Hinch has been unable to wring outs consistently from the relievers that anchored his bullpen during the regular season -- guys like Ken Giles, Chris Devenski, and Joe Musgrove. That goes back to earlier in the postseason, when short-run struggles appeared to cause Hinch to lose faith in those relievers. As a partial consequence, you saw some Houston primary starters picking up the load, sometimes in "piggyback" fashion. Think of Lance McCullers in Game 7 of the ALCS and Brad Peacock in Game 3 of the World Series. In Game 7, though, those bullpen-wide trends flipped at just the right time. 

McCullers, the Game 7 starter for the Astros, kept Los Angeles off the board, but he lasted just 2 1/3 innings -- the shortest outing for a Houston starter this series. That meant the Astros would need 20 outs from a bullpen that had theretofore been a pronounced World Series liability. 

Peacock, the hero of Game 3, drew the first assignment. He got Yasiel Puig to fly out to center and then struck out Joc Pederson to end the third. In the fourth, Peacock retired the 7-8-9 hitters in order. Then came the fifth. Chris Taylor flew out, but then Peacock yielded a walk to Corey Seager and a single to Justin Turner. Then Hinch called on Francisco Liriano to face lefty Cody Bellinger, who grounded into a fielder's choice. Then it was Chris Devenski, who got Puig to line out to first base on a 96-mph fastball up and in. 

Then it was Charlie Morton, whom Hinch double-switched into the game to start the sixth. It would be his last pitching change of the night. Morton's final line ... 

The lone run came in that sixth inning. Morton allowed the first two to reach before getting Austin Barnes to pop out. Then veteran Andre Ethier pinch hit for Clayton Kershaw and singled to right to plate Pederson and push Logan Forsythe to scoring position. The Morton when curve-splitter-fastball-splitter to strike out Taylor and got Seager to ground out softly to short on the first pitch he saw (while almost impaling Morton with a bat shard). Morton wouldn't allow a baserunner the rest of the way. 

There's no such thing as too big of a lead in the World Series clincher, so it said volumes about Hinch's confidence in Morton (and, by extension, his possible lack of confidence in his other options), that he let Morton bat to lead off the ninth even with Carlos Beltran available (Morton struck out). A few minutes later, Morton threw a 96 mph fastball to Seager -- his 52nd pitch of the night, more than either starter threw -- who hit back at 94 mph to Jose Altuve in the right field grass ... 

And with that the Astros were champions. 

That blighted Houston pen wound up allowing three hits in the 6 2/3 innings asked of them while striking out six, walking two, a registering six ground-outs. Their ERA for the night clocked in at 1.35. In other words, they shaved almost six runs off their World Series ERA through the first six games. Timely stuff, that. 

This bullpen was good, not great, during the regular season and on balance pretty terrible in the World Series. Get bullpen performance like that, and you're lucky to stick around for seven games. The Astros, though, slugged their way through those relief issues and then leaned on the pen in Game 7. A bullpen by nature is prone to short-run vacillations, and things finally broke their way on Wednesday night in L.A. As for those prior struggles, no one in gray on the field or orange in the stands gives much of a damn about that right now.