CLEVELAND — A Legacy of October Heroes

For an entire generation of baseball fans, Andy Pettitte was as synonymous with October as fun-size Snickers bars and pumpkin-spice lattes. Over his illustrious career, he made 44 postseason starts, amassing an astounding number of innings that no other pitcher comes close to matching—nearly 50 innings ahead of the next closest competitor. Each time Pettitte took the mound, he was acutely aware of the expectations that lay before him. “I was going to probably throw 100 pitches, no matter what,” he reflected late Friday in the familiar confines of the New York Yankees’ clubhouse, poised on the brink of another pennant. “It’s just a different game now.”

In Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, both the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians found themselves in a pitching conundrum, managing to escape with their arms intact. One can only imagine the surgeons nationwide who must have been transfixed by the Yankees’ thrilling 8-6 victory.

A staggering 14 pitchers took the mound at Progressive Field during this game, a slight reduction from the 15 used in Game 3. The intense attrition has resulted in nail-biting finishes in a series that has proven to be much more competitive, game-to-game, than its National League counterpart. However, both series share a common thread: not a single game has featured both starters lasting five innings. Moreover, it’s becoming increasingly evident that nearly every reliever appears to be running on fumes.

“The game’s built on bullpens now,” Pettitte noted, now serving as a special advisor for the Yankees. “Teams piece it together, and that’s a tough task. Having been around the game all year, you can clearly see how different it is from when I played. It’s a whole new brand of baseball. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up for debate, but teams are constructed to handle it now. Back when I pitched, relievers weren’t built to do what they are doing now.”

During the 1995 postseason, Pettitte’s inaugural playoff run, there were 31 starts of at least 100 pitches. Fast forward to the 2012 postseason—his last—as there were still 29 such starts. Yet, this year, we’ve only seen two, courtesy of Philadelphia Phillies’ Zack Wheeler and New York Mets’ Luis Severino. In stark contrast, just in the 2009 postseason alone, Pettitte racked up an impressive 30 2/3 innings pitched over five starts.

It would make some sense if the relievers were dominating, but that’s not the case this October. Teams continue to rely on bullpen strategies to push through to a championship. For Game 4 on Friday, the Yankees chose to give a much-needed night off to Luke Weaver, who had pitched in every postseason game and had surrendered David Fry’s walk-off homer in Game 3. Despite this setback, the Yankees anticipated minimal work from starter Luis Gil, who had not pitched for nearly three weeks and was a leading candidate for the AL Rookie of the Year Award.

Gil had shown promise in September with a 4.00 ERA and had managed to pitch at least five innings in all five of his outings. Thus, it was surprising—even to Yankees manager Aaron Boone—to hear him say after the game, “What was big was Luis getting us four innings,” a statement that seemed to downplay the challenge. “I was really keeping him around like, 75, 80 pitches. I think he ended up throwing 80 (actually, 79), probably even more than we really like.”

This scenario underscores the educated guesses that managers make from March to November: how long can each pitcher remain effective, especially after a period of rest? The postseason complicates this decision further, as the competition intensifies and stakes increase. Starters aren’t trained to pitch deep into games anymore, and after a long season, relievers are often overworked and more familiar to hitters due to repeated appearances.

“Guys have been throwing a lot of innings and can be fatigued,” said Kahnle, who admitted he should probably mix in a fastball or two next time. “But I would say adrenaline does kick in big-time in these games, so you don’t really notice until you come out.” Making his third appearance of the ALCS, Kahnle threw 18 changeups to earn the save in Game 4.

You can observe the impact of fatigue in the pitchers’ lack of command. A tired pitcher may still be able to throw as hard as usual, but their ability to repeat mechanics often suffers, leading to mistakes in the strike zone. “It’s the middle, end of October,” noted Austin Hedges, the Guardians’ veteran catcher. “Everyone’s been training since the offseason for this six-month season. As much as the ultimate goal is to win the World Series, only a handful of teams make it this far, and it can be exhausting.”

“You can see it in the past,” he continued. “There are plenty of pitchers who have pitched a lot in the playoffs and come back the next year just not the same due to the added month of pressure and intensity. That’s a very real phenomenon.”

Yet, it’s a challenge that must be met. “I feel like their team is experiencing the same fatigue we are,” Hedges added. “They’ve got a good bullpen, but they’re not pitching at the level they’d like to be either.”

The Guardians’ bullpen posted an impressive 2.57 ERA during the regular season, the best by any team since the 2013 Kansas City Royals. However, in the postseason, Cleveland’s relievers have been far less effective, with a 3.83 ERA. On the other hand, the Yankees’ weary bullpen has performed better, with a 2.97 ERA.

Closer Emmanuel Clase, who allowed just five earned runs during the regular season, has now given up eight runs in October. After blowing the save in Game 3 and losing Game 4, his postseason ERA stands at a staggering 10.29. Manager Stephen Vogt pointed to pitch location and a Yankees lineup that led the majors in walks and capitalizes on mistakes. “That is what the Yankees do really well,” Vogt said. “They take a really good approach against your pitchers, wait for mistakes, and then they don’t miss their opportunities.”

Indeed, the Yankees have taken extraordinary at-bats this postseason, with Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton proving as dangerous as Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. While Judge and Stanton homered off Clase in Game 3, it was Anthony Rizzo, Anthony Volpe, Alex Verdugo, and Torres who capitalized on softer contact in Game 4.

Cleveland has seen its starters struggle; they’ve only managed to get 15 outs from a starter just once this postseason, when Matthew Boyd held the Yankees to one run over five innings in Game 3. Tanner Bibee, the nominal ace, lasted only 39 pitches on Tuesday, a brief outing that necessitated him to start on short rest for Game 5 on Saturday.

“The strength of our team has been our bullpen all year, so we’re going to lean on that,” said Shane Bieber, the former Cy Young Award winner who underwent Tommy John surgery after just two starts this season. “Most teams are doing the same because runs are at a premium in these high-stakes situations. Starters can go deeper, but when the stakes are this high, the leash is often shorter.”

It speaks volumes about the Guardians that they’ve made it this far without their best starter. Boyd was a masterstroke signing—a veteran with a fresh arm following his own Tommy John rehab—but the team lacks confidence in their starters’ ability to pitch deep into games.

It’s a strategy that worked during the regular season and helped Cleveland advance past an even more bullpen-heavy team, the Detroit Tigers, in the division series. Yet now, with the pinnacle of the season in sight, the little engine is sputtering. “I mean, everybody is tired,” Vogt admitted. “We’ve used our bullpen a lot. We’ve had to. It’s who we are.”

The Guardians have one last opportunity to win with this identity. It’s a challenging road, and they are certainly not alone in facing it.

(Photo of starter Gavin Williams exiting the game: Jason Miller / Getty Images)