NLCS TV schedule provides pitching options
LOS ANGELES - Call it a made-for-television move. By building an extra open date into the middle of each league championship series, baseball minimized the number of dates on which two games would be played, bumping one of them out of prime time.
That, in turn, had significant baseball implications. For the first time, it gave the managers the option of using their Game 1 starter on 3 days' rest and then having him fully-rested for a decisive Game 7 if necessary.
Dodgers manager Joe Torre opted for Door No. 1. Righthander Derek Lowe will make his second start of the NLCS tonight against the Phillies at Dodger Stadium.
Charlie Manuel picked Door No. 2. So Lowe will be opposed by righthander Joe Blanton, appearing for the first time since he was the winning pitcher in the NLDS clincher at Milwaukee a week ago yesterday.
The Phillies manager based his decision on a couple factors. One was that staff ace Cole Hamels finished second in the league with 227 1/3 innings pitched during the regular season, so the extra day off can only benefit him. The other is that the Phillies are 10-4 in games started by Blanton since he was acquired from the Athletics on July 17.
"It's nice to know they have the confidence to put me out there," Blanton said. "But I also think it shows the depth of our team a little bit. It also gives your Game 1 starter that extra day, which is always helpful, especially when he's packed on as many innings as Cole has this year. That extra day probably really comes in handy."
Torre waited until after the Dodgers lost the first two games to announce that he was bringing Lowe back a day earlier than his normal turn, but said he'd been leaning in that direction from the start.
"That was pretty much our plan," he said. "The fact that you have this extra off day, Game 4 is the only time a pitcher has to pitch on short rest. Then you can use three starters and have the other guys pitch on regular rest."
Torre went on to say that it also allows him to use Clayton Kershaw, who would have started Game 4 if Lowe hadn't, out of the bullpen. That gives him three lefthanders - Hong-Chih Kuo, Joe Beimel and Kershaw - to match up against the Phillies' lefthanded hitters like Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.
Finally, Torre mentioned that it meant Chad Billingsley would get an earlier chance to bounce back from his horrendous start in Game 2 when he gave up eight runs, seven earned, on eight hits in 2 1/3 innings.
Lowe tamed the Phillies for five innings in Game 1, getting ground ball after harmless ground ball. Then shortstop Rafael Furcal made a throwing error on a grounder hit by Shane Victorino.
Lowe insisted he wasn't rattled by the mistake. But the fact remains that a pitcher who had been keeping the ball down all game suddenly left a couple up in the zone and Chase Utley and Pat Burrell knocked them out of the park.
Torre said that Lowe has the proper "mind-set" to pitch on 3 days' rest and noted that "if he maybe is a little tired, a sinkerball pitcher is probably the one guy that's not going to feel the effects of it."
Lowe shrugged off the significance of coming back early. "I pretty much told [Torre] there's no problem, I'll pitch whenever," he said. "I've known all along this was going to be the scenario."
It's a scenario that was made feasible by a relatively minor scheduling change to accommodate television. And it created a decision that both managers had to make. *
