It was 50 years ago this October that the St. Louis Cardinals outlasted the New York Yankees in a memorable seven-game World Series that saw Bob Gibson post a pair of complete-game wins, including a Game 7 decision on just two days' rest.
"I never considered taking him out," Cardinals manager Johnny Keane said afterward. "I had a commitment to his heart."
Starting pitchers in that Fall Classic averaged 6.88 innings per outing, almost two-thirds of an inning higher than the average of 6.32 frames for the entire regular season. But the postseason back then went no more than seven games, giving managers such as Keane and the Yankees' Yogi Berra added incentive to ride the rotation for all it was worth.
When the 2014 version of postseason baseball unfolds next week, expect a far more reduced workload for the starters, down even from what we have seen over the past six months.