Liam Hendriks is a 31-year-old Australian with a career 4.72 earned-run average, possessing a skill set that makes him valuable to major league teams, but fungible enough to play for four franchises in six seasons.
Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, he’ll make baseball history.
The game’s tension among traditionalists and technocrats will take a new twist when Hendriks takes the mound in the bottom of the first inning as the Oakland Athletics aim to topple the 100-win New York Yankees in the American League wild-card game.
For the first time, a playoff starter will take the ball at the game’s outset with absolutely no intention of finishing – or coming anywhere close. Hendriks will take the “opener” concept – a reliever starting a game in hopes of neutralizing the top of the order and minimizing exposure of other pitchers – onto baseball’s biggest stage, in a do-or-die format.
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“All it means,” Hendriks said Tuesday, “is I'm relieving in the first inning.”
Fair enough. Yet it’s also the most significant lab test yet in a sport that’s seen many norms turned on their ear this century.
The A’s, who lost a dozen starting pitchers to injury since spring training, did not invent the “opener” concept; the notion of a “bullpen game” has long existed, and the 2018 Tampa Bay Rays were the first to try the “opener” writ large over the course of a season.
It’s probably appropriate, however, that it’s the A’s – with Moneyball innovation in their DNA – putting the practice in the spotlight.
“We have guys in the front office that do a lot of research to put us in the best situations for success, and I think it's our job to put some faith in them,” said All-Star closer Blake Treinen, speaking of baseball ops president Billy Beane, general manager David Forst and their army of quants. “We've got the arms to make this make sense.”
Do they have the arms to beat the Yankees, who hit more home runs than anyone in baseball? A closer look:
27 outs
Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s pitching decision created almost as much scrutiny as the A’s, since ostensible aces Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka struggled greatly at times this season. J.A. Happ was an excellent trade-deadline acquisition, but starting a lefty at Yankee Stadium against a lineup with elite right-handed power hitters seemed foolhardy.
So Severino will get the ball, one year after he face-planted in the AL wild-card game, retiring just one batter and giving up three runs. The Yankees’ powerful bats and bullpen bailed him out and Severino recovered to record a crucial win in the AL Division Series.
His average fastball velocity of 97.5 mph is the hardest among major league starters, and he’ll be pitching on seven days of rest. That combination will attack an A’s lineup that has ripped 227 home runs – second only to the Yankees – but struggles against elite velocity.
“He’s equipped with amazing stuff and the ability to dominate big league hitters,” Boone said Tuesday.
Yet, while the Yankes won’t be “bullpenning” this game, Boone’s hook may not be much slower than Oakland manager Bob Melvin’s. The Yankees will go early and often to their relievers: Dellin Betances, David Robertson and Chad Green will very likely appear far earlier than usual.
So, too, will the A’s, whose 3.38 bullpen ERA is a tick better than the Yankees and ranked second in the AL. In fact, with starter Mike Fiers not on the wild-card roster, it may very well be an all-reliever effort after Hendriks, with late-season acquisitions Jeurys Familia, Fernando Rodney and Shawn Kelley stacking up until they can get the ball to Treinen, whose 0.78 ERA is the lowest in baseball history for pitchers with at least 75 innings pitched.
And that call may come very early.
“I wouldn't put past him being able to pitch three innings, to tell you the truth,” Melvin said Tuesday. “He's a former starter. He's got a rubber arm.”
Keep an eye on…
Matt Chapman. The A’s third baseman has the makings of a future MVP, and much of the baseball-viewing nation will get a look at his elite glove work that resulted in a major league best 29 defensive runs saved. They may need him more at the plate: Chapman hit 24 homers and produced a .356 on-base percentage, but also struck out 146 times in 546 at-bats.
Close and late
It’s a one-game knockout, and teams can re-set rosters after this round, so expect the weird early and often. Should the game go long, Tanaka and Happ are available as designated long guys for New York.
Closer Aroldis Chapman, meanwhile, had just enough runway to assert himself again after missing a month with knee tendinitis. In his final four regular season appearances, Chapman struck out eight in 3 2/3 innings of hitless, scoreless work.
In the end
It’s a 97-win team vs. a 100-win team, a matchup better suited for a Division or League Championship series. Alas, in a galaxy that includes the 108-win Red Sox – who await the winner – and 103-win Astros, it’s one-and-done for one of these teams.
In a matchup of power vs. power on both sides, Severino should be able to provide just enough of a push off the dock to give the Yankees the upper hand come the late innings. With so much right-handed power in this game – Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Chapman, Khris Davis, Stephen Piscotty and more – the outcome will always be in doubt.
Figure that the Yankees have just enough to prevail.
Yankees 6, Athletics 5
Follow Lacques on Twitter @GabeLacques
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