Tampa Bay Rays’ Kevin Cash goes against trend, leaves Tyler Glasnow in to throw career-high 112 pitches
Glasnow ended up throwing a career-high 112 pitches and giving up six runs on three hits and six walks. Four of those runs came in the fifth.
“Just trust that he had plenty of stuff to keep us right there,” Cash said after the game. “The walks are definitely not ideal, but we didn’t do a good job of holding the runners on. We can’t allow the double steal right there.”
With the Dodgers leading 2-1 at the time, Cash opted to let Glasnow keep pitching after he walked Mookie Betts and Corey Seager. Betts stole second, and then the runners pulled off a double steal, opening the inning for Los Angeles. Glasnow was at 99 pitches after the two walks — his fifth and sixth of the night — but kept going.
“I felt relatively good,” Glasnow said. “Any pitcher at the end part of the [outing], you want to be left in. That’s the competitive nature … I think the adrenaline takes over. When I go to 100 pitches, I don’t feel the fatigue that much.”
It was a curious move mostly because it went against the trend Cash had set all season. The Rays’ bullpen ranked third in innings pitched and first in stranding inherited runners during the regular season. In fact, their 19% inherited runners scored rate was 14 points below league average.
After the double steal, Cash figured Glasnow was his best bet against Max Muncy with a man on third and fewer than two outs.
“I felt like we needed a strikeout, and there might not be anyone better equipped to get a strikeout right there than Glass,” Cash said.
Muncy grounded to first, scoring Betts from third. That was followed by a run-scoring single from Will Smith that ended Glasnow’s night. Reliever Ryan Yarbrough took over.
“If I could go back and strike [Muncy] out, it would be great, but it didn’t happen that way,” Glasnow said. “I felt a little weird at the beginning. Just too many walks, not executing enough.”
Glasnow is the first pitcher in World Series history to allow six earned runs and walk six batters, becoming just the third hurler to do so in the postseason. His 4.1 innings with 112 pitches marked the fewest innings pitched in an outing of 110-plus pitches in a postseason game since pitches were first tracked in 1988. It also marked the most pitches thrown by a Tampa Bay pitcher this season.
The Rays insisted that Glasnow was fine to remain in the game in the critical inning.
“I thought he was throwing the ball extremely well,” catcher Mike Zunino said of the fifth inning. “Couple free passes, but he landed the breaker, threw some great changeups. He has a high ceiling with strikeouts, so he has the ability to get us out of a jam.”