If there is anything the Texas Rangers have demonstrated during their October run, it's that starting pitching depth isn't just for the regular season anymore. And in Game 4 we might find out if that statement will become a new maxim for October baseball.
In one of the most important contests of their respective seasons, the Rangers and Diamondbacks will both turn to a bullpen game, but there is a marked difference between what Texas manager Bruce Bochy and his counterpart Torey Lovullo have to work with. While the Diamondbacks have a fairly standard playoff staff that is heavy on relievers, the Rangers have an unusually constructed pitching staff. They have eight pitchers on the roster who started at least eight games during the regular season.
By this point of the postseason, Bochy has called upon them all, but Game 4 is going to be a new kind of challenge -- especially after Game 3 offered a pretty telling preview thanks to the effort of Jon Gray, who entered in the fourth after Max Scherzer's back tightened up. Gray was brought in to be the stopgap -- and he delivered three filthy innings.
"Jon Gray came in and did a great job for us," Scherzer said. "Man, he really saved us. He pitched great."
Despite Scherzer's early exit -- and remember, after logging just 36 pitches, he had been positioned to work at least into the middle innings -- Gray's outing created a pristine bridge to the back of Bruce Bochy's bullpen. Josh Sborz, Aroldis Chapman and Jose Leclerc finished it out, each going an inning, each throwing exactly 16 pitches.
The duration of Gray's outing essentially turned Game 3 into an unplanned piggyback game, and it worked to perfection. But with another game coming fast -- and another one after that -- what does a postseason manager, even one as seasoned as Bochy, do now?