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Astros manager Dusty Baker pulled Cristian Javier after 97 pitches and six innings in Game 4 of the World Series though the right-hander was throwing a no-hitter.
It was the right thing, for both Javier and the Astros, who completed a combined no-hitter.
Baker stuck with Justin Verlander through trouble in the fifth inning of Game 5 and somewhere in both his heart and brain, the manager admitted later, was the understanding that the veteran righty needed one more out to qualify for his long-attempted first World Series win.
It was the right thing for Verlander, who got the win, and it also turned out well for the Astros.
Those two victories, which gave Houston a 3-2 series lead and moved it to the brink of winning the 118th World Series, exemplify an overarching problem for central baseball. So much that is efficient and smart these days can rob pitchers of the chance for individual accomplishments — the kind that might draw more than a local fan base to care.
Let’s take them one at a time:
1. I have witnessed three Javier starts in person this year. Two ended in combined no-hitters — one in June versus the Yankees and the other in Game 4 of the World Series. Javier is the most dominant pitcher I have seen in 2022. Yet, both no-hitters played into the modern game: They were meaningful to a local market, but didn’t resonate nationally.
There is a difference between a team allowing no hits and a no-hitter. The no-hitter, to me, is when one pitcher is fighting fatigue and facing a lineup for the third time, while coping with the tension associated with being out there alone the whole time. That quest could draw outside interest. But a relay-race no-hitter?
Maybe if it were a close game in which one swing could change the outcome.
