Scherzer's normal rest would have had him starting today. Corbin would have started on 1 day less rest tomorrow, and Strasburg would be regular rest in game 5. Assuming they could get 7 innings from normal rest and maybe 5-6 on short rest, that's 20-21 innings from the big 3. Instead, they got 1 from Scherzer on Friday, 1 from Corbin today. They'll have Scherzer with a weird in-between bullpen session tomorrow. Real games are fundamentally different than bullpen sessions in terms of stress on the arm because you're giving everything you have. But lets say they can get 6 out of Scherzer tomorrow, and the same 7 out of Strasburg in game. That's still a total of 15 innnigs from the big 3. So by doing this nonsense, they are going to need 5-6 extra innings out of the bullpen they didn't even trust for 1 inning. There was no way this was going to work out well. They really didn't, though - not in this form. The Astros had a bunch of starters - Verlander and Keuchel as fulltime starters, an injured McCullers who was still ramping up, same with McHugh, a half-bullpen Peacock, and Morton. They converted starters into bullpen guys, but they never messed with their starters' rest. The Astros used: Verlander in Game 4 vs Boston (started his next game on normal rest) McCullers in Game 7 vs NY (started his next game on more than normal rest) Morton in Game 7 vs LA (no future starts) For all the goofy bullpen stuff the Astros did, they never started a player on less than normal rest.
I'm not sure Corbin doesn't pitch after Scherzer today and he definitely pitches after Strasburg if there is a game 5. If Nationals had won last night, there was a very good chance it would have worked out well. Considering they are going against a vastly better team, losing the series 3-1 was probably the likeliest scenario. Edit: I liked the Scherzer move more than the Corbin move. They had stolen a game in LA, and had gotten to a point that they could have pitched every inning of Game 4 and 5 with one of their Big 3.
But had they not done this, Scherzer could have pitched after Strasburg in game 5 also (on 2 days rest instead of 1, meaning he could probably go longer). Well, of course. Game 3 was the game they screwed up the most. If they managed through that, sure it might have worked out OK - but it made Game 3 much, much more difficult. They win the next 2, it will have worked out well too. But it's still less likely than the alternative. If they trusted Sanchez to pitch 4-6 innings yesterday, it would have been a lot easier to just trust him to pitch the 1 inning on Friday.
Not if they lose Game 2. I care more about maximizing great pitchers into same game than I'm into maximizing number of innings over the series. Nationals don't have enough pitching. Whether they do this or that, I don't really care. Personally, once Nationals got to only needing to win 2 more games, I would have have put every good pitching resource of value into Games 4 and 5. Though, this gimmick or playing it straight isn't a big deal as we're probably talking about changing odds of winning this series by less than a percent either way considering they are playing a better, complete team.
Dallas with his best Greinke impersonation. Code: PITCHERS IP H R ER BB K HR PC-ST ERA D. Keuchel 3.1 4 3 3 1 4 3 67-42 4.50 Z. Greinke 3.2 5 6 6 1 5 3 61-41 14.73
Yeah, they actually have a chance. From the link: "With his latest gem, Strasburg’s postseason ERA dropped to 0.64, the lowest in postseason history (minimum four starts), besting Sandy Koufax’s 0.95 ERA, according to MLB Stats." There was that whole controversial post-Tommy John surgery season, where they shut him down despite being primed for a playoff run. After 10 years in the league, this is pretty much his moment.
