Wade Miley’s 5-Pitch Start and Other MLB Tactics
Wade Miley started for the Milwaukee Brewers against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the ALCS. On five pitches, he walked Cody Bellinger, batting in the leadoff spot. And then he was taken out of the game.
In a season when the Tampa Bay Rays helped pioneer expanded use of the “opener,” even this seemed excessive. Five pitches? Maybe Craig Counsell and the other coaches noticed something in Miley’s delivery that indicated an injury or some other discomfort. Such a short outing is more easily explicable in terms of a physical malady, an unexpected turn of events.
As it turned out, though, this one-batter appearance for Wade Miley was in the cards all along. R.J. Anderson, writing for CBS Sports and citing Ken Rosenthal, highlights how Counsell’s call to the bullpen was planned. Miley indicated in the postgame interview that he was in on the strategy. Brandon Woodruff, called in to replace Miley, imagined “something was up” when he wasn’t asked to pitch or even warm up the previous contest.
So, what was Miley’s quick hook all about? Evidently, the Brewers wanted to see if they could compel the Dodgers to set a righty-heavy lineup as they did in Game 2 (all starters were right-handed batters—even Hyun-Jin Ryu, who pitches left-handed). Then, Milwaukee would bring out Woodruff to try to negate the platoon advantage.
Perhaps the LA Dodgers sensed something was up as well, as they wrote lefties Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy into the Game 5 starting lineup. Then again, seeing as their all-righty Game 2 Lineup produced only two hits against Wade Miley in 5.2 innings, maybe Dave Roberts simply figured he would roll the dice with a more balanced attack. Statistically speaking, he and his team couldn’t do much worse.
The Milwaukee Brewers’ strategy is notable as an example of the lengths to which MLB teams today will go to try to get an advantage over the other—however slight or fleeting it may be. Anderson, again invoking Rosenthal, also discusses Milwaukee’s practice this postseason of waiting later than usual to name a starting pitcher.
Customarily, teams will give 24 hours’ notice, though they don’t have to make it official until lineup cards are exchanged. The Dodgers reportedly mulled taking the decision to name a starter down to the wire. They considered this tactic if they felt the Brewers were delaying their announcement to gain a competitive advantage. Conceivably, league officials could even bring up this subject in the offseason. They could enact a new hard-and-fast deadline by which managers would have to declare starting pitchers.
The above tactics are (currently) legal and are subject to failure. For all the Brewers’ machinations in Game 5, they ultimately lost the game. That may have had as much to do with Clayton Kershaw’s effort—a seven-inning, one-run gem which saw him cede only three hits and two walks and in which he garnered nine strikeouts—than any chess moves made by Milwaukee re their bullpen. For what it’s worth, Bellinger and Muncy, the left-handers inserted into the starting lineup, each got hits in the game.
In the milieu of MLB gamesmanship, however, it’s not only procedural matters like lineups and starters that raise concern. Sign stealing, a practice with a storied history in baseball, only seems to generate more and more suspicion—if not paranoia—as the seasons pass.
Noah Trister, AP sports writer, wrote about how technology is feeding teams’ obsession with trying to nullify the opponent’s attempts at subterfuge. Recently, MLB officials had to rule on suspicions that the Houston Astros were using a person with a cellphone aimed at the opposing team’s dugout.
Twice during this year’s playoffs—once during the ALDS against the Cleveland Indians and again during the ALCS with the Boston Red Sox—an Astros employee was removed by security for where he was seated and how he was using his phone. Houston claims the individual with the phone was there to maintain that the other team wasn’t cheating. Major League Baseball agreed with this assessment, and considers the matter closed. For the teams filing complaints, meanwhile, this likely does little to allay their alarm.
As Trister details, we now have cameras on phones as well as high-speed and high-magnification cameras at ballparks. Consequently, managers, GMs, and their teams are on high alert for suspected chicanery. To try to guard against sign stealing, pitchers and catchers have long made a habit of switching signs. These days, however, teams may change up and use more complex sequences even when no one is on base. Recent limitations placed on mound visits have only added another wrinkle to the “head games” teams play.
What now ensues feels less like a chess match and more like espionage. Apple Watches. Decoy signs. “Agents” in restricted seating areas. What’s more, for every team accused, there is one or more fingers pointed in the opposite direction. It lends credence to the adage, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” In an era when everyone is a suspect, organizations and officials alike have their hands full trying to curtail cheating.
This goes beyond legitimate strategy and what we can see as television viewers, though. At any rate, maneuvers like the Wade Miley five-pitch experiment give baseball writers and fans plenty to talk about. For a league preoccupied with generating and sustaining interest, it’s quirks like these which can only help draw more eyes.
-Joseph Mangano
