After the Cardinals dispatched the Brewers in the LCS, a considerable fuss was made of Tony LaRussa's managing of the Cardinals bullpen.
LaRussa's relievers worked harder than his starters, working 52.8 percent of the innings against the Brewers. And why not? They pitched considerably better than his starters, posting a 2.89 ERA after the starters had been knocked around for a 5.76 ERA in their 25 IP. LaRussa acknowledged that this wasn't something you could do on a regular basis, but that the post-season is a different sort of beast. And it was fascinating to me to hear those sentiments from Tony LaRussa, of all people. In his first two managerial stops, LaRussa's treams quite frequently lost post-season series they were expected to win, and one of the problems was LaRussa managing in the post-season exactly the same way he did during the regular season. (In particular, LaRussa's love of aggressive baserunning used to backfire on him quite regularly, as that stuff doesn't work nearly as well against the good teams, who play good defense. Ron Washington's received a few lessons in that area this fall.)
Anyway, its kind of cool to see an old dog picking up a new trick. I don't much like Tony LaRussa (or, more accurately, the image that's been created of and about him), which isn't that big a deal. He's a baseball manager, many of whom do not seem to be particularly likeable people. It's hardly a job requirement. But I don't much like the way he manages, which is something else. I think he's a compulsive over-manager, far too fond of showing off how clever he is. The Charley Dressen of his time. I also hold LaRussa responsible for the endless parade of relief pitchers which have come to mar the game. It was LaRussa who figured out, in the late 1980s, that carrying extra relief pitchers was a more efficient use of roster resources than carrying extra bats. The entire baseball world has followed his lead in this area. The only thing - the only thing - that will undo this dreadful trend will be rule changes that place restrictions on bullpen usage. But you have to give him his due. The fact that the entire baseball world has followed his lead in this area makes LaRussa an historical figure of considerable importance and
enormous influence in the evolution of the game's strategies. I think what he's achieved in St.Louis is the most impressive accomplishment of an impressive enough career. This is his 16th season in St.Louis, which is an extraordinary period of time for a manager to retain his effectiveness.
I didn't think LaRussa would be able to repeat against Texas what he did against Milwaukee - without some help from the starters, his bullpen would surely begin begin to break down. But he got exactly what he needed in the first two games - quality starts from Carpenter and Garcia. This didn't stop him from using five relievers in each game anyway, he just used them for shorter stints. After the off-day, he brought back the Quick Hook for the third game, pulling Lohse in the fourth inning with a lead - it turned out that this was a game which Albert Pujols was going to win for him no matter what anybody else did. LaRussa may take a little heat for what happened last night, although the way Derek Holland was pitching it may not have mattered much anyway. LaRussa probably did stay a little too long with Edwin Jackson. He was only down 1-0, but Jackson had already thrown about 95 pitches through 5 innings, largely because he'd walked five guys. LaRussa didn't even have anyone getting ready, which was the real problem. So Jackson had time to walk two more Rangers before a possibly-not-quite-loose Mitchell Boggs came in to allow a three run HR on the first pitch he threw.
Anyway - I was wondering if anyone's ever won a World Series the way St.Louis just won the LCS, using relief pitchers for more innings than the starters. I was wondering what were the greatest bullpen performances in World Series history. Naturally, the 1992 Blue Jays always spring to my mind first, but I thought it would be prudent to look at all of them!
So I went burrowing through the records... (this, it turned out, was a job for Retrosheet.)
As it turns out, six teams have used relief pitchers for more innings than their starters in the World Series (three more teams used their relievers for exactly as many innings as the starters.)
Why did they do this? Generally, because their starters were dreadful.
Consider Dick Williams' San Diego Padres, who used relievers for a remarkable 75% of their innings (the highest figure ever) in 1984. The bullpen was just great, by the way, posting a 1.71 ERA in 31.2 innings. Unfortunately, those Padres received what was quite clearly the worst performance from their starting pitchers in World Series history. By a mile, in fact. San Diego's starters gave Williams just 10.1 innings in the five games, and their ERA of 13.94 is the worst in Series history. His game one starter, Mark Thurmond, actually took a 2-1 lead into the fifth inning against Jack Morris. But with two out, Thurmond allowed a two-run homer to Larry Herndon, and Williams went to the pen in the sixth inning. The bullpen shut down the Tigers the rest of the way, but Morris did likewise. Thurmond was the only San Diego starter in 1984 to make it through the third inning - in the next four games, the San Diego starters worked a total of 5 innings and allowed 14 runs.
The 1989 Giants, swept in four by LaRussa's A's in the Earthquake series were a similar case, if not quite so dramatic. Roger Craig was obliged to turn to his relievers for almost two thirds of the Series innings (62%). Alas, they did not distinguish themselves, posting an ERA of 6.00 in their 21 IP - but at least they were better than the guys they replaced. With an ERA of 11.77, the 1989 Giants' starters were worse than anyone in WS history save the 1984 Padres. Roger Craig did manage to squeeze a few more innings out of them than Williams got from his guys in 1984, and two of his starters actually made it as far as the fifth inning.
The relief crew that threw the most innings in WS history? That would be the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, ladies and gentlemen. Award yourself a cuttlefish if you knew that. I didn't know it my own self, but I did know that those Dodgers had somehow taken the Yankees to seven games despite dreadul performances form every starting pitcher Burt Shotton ran out there. None of his starters made it through five innings (and Shotton tried just about everybody, using six different starters in the seven games.) The Brooklyn starters went 0-4, 9.64, and lasted just 26.1 IP in a seven game series. But the relievers worked an all-time WS high of 36.2 IP, and went 3-0, 2.95. It's one of the greatest performances ever by a WS bullpen.
Except - there actually was one team who went to the relievers for more innings than the starters, and actually walked home with a championship. And another team who used the relievers for exactly as many innings as the starters, and also walked home with a championship. Strangely enough, both teams came from Pittsburgh.
One of them, amazingly enough, was the 1960 Pirates, in the Mazeroski series. Why is it amazing? Well, the Pirates relievers worked 31 IP, the same as the starters. The starters weren't very good (5.81 ERA), but that was way better than the bullpen. The 1960 Pirates relievers were absolutely pounded by the Yankees, allowing 34 runs in 31 innings. Just 29 runs were earned, so the bullpen ERA was only 8.42, but still... how on earth did they win it anyway? Well, the Pirates won twice by one run, once by two runs, once by three runs. The Yankees won once by 10 runs, once by 12 runs (those were Whitey Ford's two shutouts), and once by 13 runs.
And the one team that won the WS while using the relievers for more innings than the starters? The team with quite likely the best claim to the Greatest WS bullpen performance ever?
The 1979 Pirates. The starters weren't bad at all - they worked 30.2 innings in the seven games (1-2, 4.40). Chuck Tanner actually got quality starts from Blyeleven and Bibby (the Orioles rallied against the Pirates bullpen to win the game Bibby started.) He received brilliant outings from John Candelaria and Jim Rooker (the latter an emergency start, with Blyleven on hand to relieve him in the fifth inning.) But Tanner's relief corps ultimately saved the day. He went to the pen 17 times, and called on them to throw 31.1 innings. They were outstanding (3-1, 2.30)
Another team with a claim to greatest WS bullpen ever would be the 1973 A's. Dick Williams used his pen to throw 31 innings in the seven games against the Mets. His pen went 1-1, 0.87 and saved all four Oakland wins. The ERA is a trifle misleading, but just a trifle. The Oakland relievers allowed 10 runs in that series, and only 3 were earned. Two of the unearned runs were caused by reliever Horacio Pina's throwing error in Game 2 - but three unearned runs scored when Mike Andrews misplayed consecutive two out grounders in the 12th inning of the same game. You can argue for them instead of the 1979 Pirates.
Any other contenders?
Well, there have been 27 bullpens that didn't allow a single run in the World Series. Of course, five of those pens had it especially easy, as their teams didn't find it necessary to use even one relief pitcher in the course of the World Series. The last time that happened was in 1928, when Miller Huggins and the Yankees were blowing away the Cardinals in four straight. The other four occasions were Bill Carrigan's 1915 Red Sox, and Connie Mack's A's of 1905, 1910, and 1913. All of those teams won the Ws, except for the 1905 A's. Connie Mack was born in 1862 (before any other man who has ever managed in a WS game) and he didn't start using relief pitchers much at all until the 1920s. His 1905 starters pitched fairly well, but they were up against the greatest performance by a starting rotation in WS history. The 1905 Giants starters went 4-1, 0.00 - in 44 innings, they allowed 23 hits and 3 unearned runs.
Of the other 22 bullpens that actually saw some action and didn't allow any runs at all - most of them weren't asked to do much. Nine of those 22 teams only used a reliever in one game - in 1963, all the Dodgers needed was for Ron Perranoski to get 2 outs in the second game. On the other hand, noted flake and journeyman Moe Drabowsky relieved a shaky Dave McNally in the third inning of the 1966 series opener and threw 6.2 scoreless innings against the Dodgers, striking out 11 - the shocked Dodgers wouldn't score another run all year, being shut out in succession by Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker, and McNally.
The one bullpen that pitched at least 10 WS innings without allowing a run? Cincinnati's famous 1990 pen, which helped Lou Piniella's Reds swept LaRussa's A's in 1990. The Nasty Boys pitched 13 innings in the series, and didn't allow a run. Jose Rijo was the MVP, and he was certainly deserving (although I think Billy Hatcher was even more deserving) - but Myers, Dibble and Charlton could not have been better.
And yes - it turns out we do need to number the 1992 Blue Jays as one of the greatest WS bullpen performances ever. They really are part of the discussion. Cito Gaston went to his pen 19 times in the six games. His relievers worked 18.1 innings and allowed just 2 runs. His relievers went 3-0, 0.49 and saved 3 of the 4 wins. Everyone remembers Ward and Henke from that team, as they should. And everyone remembers Mike Timlin, who saved the final game. But the relievers Gaston called on the most? David Wells and Todd Stottlemyre, who each pitched four times out of the pen and combined to give the Jays 8 shutout innings of relief. They were the real MVP of that series, they could hardly have performed any better than they did, and the only reason they might not rank as high as the 1979 Pirates and the 1973 A's is because they weren't needed for as many innings.
Honourable Mentions:
Boston Braves 1948 (the "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" team? Yup, those guys.)
New York Yankees 1961
Brooklyn Dodgers 1955
Philadelphia Phillies 1980
Cincinnati Reds 1972
The 1972 Reds and Sparky's 1975 Cincinnati pen (which also did a fine job) won 3 of the 4 series games - the other pens to win 3 games were the 1979 Pirates, the 1992 Blue Jays, the 1947 Dodgers, and the 2000 Yankees.
Only one relief crew has lost four WS games - that was the 2005 Houston Astros, who weren't really all that terrible (0-4, 4.91 in 18.1 innings.)
Two relief crews have lost 3 games. The 1975 Red Sox pen pitched very well against the Big red Machine - but despite a 1.62 ERA, they went 1-3 in the series. The 1981 Yankees bullpen didn't pitch well at all, posting a 6.43 ERA in 21 innings, and George Frazier was saddled the big L three times.
The worst performance by a bullpen? We've already mentioned the dreadul work of the 1960 Pirates, who allowed 34 runs (most ever by a bullpen). Only one other relief crew in the history of the WS has allowed as many as 20 runs in a series. But the badness of that crew does stand out - they allowed their 22 runs in a mere 13.1 innings. Granted, they were facing the mighty and awesome 1936 New York Yankees (always the team I think of first when asked to name The Greatest Team of All Time.) But still... the Giants' pen was just astoundingly bad. Frank Gabler (7.20 ERA), Dick Coffman (32.40 ERA), Harry Gumbert (36.00 ERA), and Al Smith (81.00 ERA) combined to pitch 9 innings and allow 21 runs. It was only the stout work of Slick Castleman (just 1 ER in 4.1 innings of relief) that allowed the Giants bullpen to bring their collective ERA down to 14.85, which is still the worst such figure ever posted by a bullpen in the World Series.
Dishonourable mentions?
Well, after the 1936 Giants, the next highest bullpen ERA was put up by the 1911 Phillies, but we'll skip over them. True, the bullpen had a 13.50 ERA, but it was one run in two-thirds of an inning. So big deal. Forget them.
Next we find Tony LaRussaa's 1989 crew, who were indeed pretty lousy against the Giants (10.29 ERA.) But they only needed to pitch seven innings, and the Giants starters were so bad it didn't matter.
Next highest bullpen ERA? Anyone here remember the 1993 Phillies? Actually, with an ERA of 9.00, they're tied with the 1932 Cubs. But Mitch Williams and company spread their badness over 19 innings, while the Cubs crew pitched 16 innings. Plus, while each series is mostly remembed for a famous home run, Babe Ruth called his shot against starter Charley Root, while Joe Carter went deep against the Phillies' closer. As you may recall...
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20111024050331612