Rollie Fingers @ baseball-reference.com
Blue Moon Odom @ baseball-reference.com
Pedro Borbon @ baseball-reference.com
Tom Hall @ baseball-reference.com
Clay Carroll @ baseball-reference.com
Vida Blue @ baseball-reference.com
Don Gullett and Ken Holtzman started every game. But they did not finish every game. Gullett averaged 7.1 innings per start. Holtzman averaged 7.6. That left, on average, two to three innings per game for the bullpens to cover.
Those two to three innings decided everything.
Rollie Fingers appeared in 25 of 35 games.
Twenty-five. Out of thirty-five. He pitched in 71% of the games in the multiverse. He threw 41 innings of relief. His ERA was 1.32. His WPA was +2.713 - the highest of any reliever on either team. He recorded 4 saves and 3 wins.
He pitched at least one inning in all 25 appearances. He pitched 3 innings in three different games. He struck out 39 batters and walked 16. He gave up 29 hits in 41 innings. He was, by any measure, the most consistently excellent reliever in 35 timelines.
Oakland called on him in the 7th. They called on him in the 8th. They called on him in the 10th, the 12th, the 15th. Every time the game went past the 7th inning and Oakland needed someone to hold the line, they called Rollie Fingers, and Rollie Fingers held the line.
Fingers pitched 3 innings - the 10th, 11th, and 12th - and did not allow a baserunner. Zero hits. Zero walks. Three strikeouts. WPA: +0.413. He kept Oakland alive for three extra innings.
Cincinnati scored in the 15th, two innings after Fingers left. He held the door shut for as long as anyone could ask. Oakland fumbled the game after he left.
The same story. Another 15-inning game. Fingers pitched 3 innings - the 10th, 11th, and 12th - and allowed 2 hits, no runs, struck out 4. WPA: +0.377.
Again, Cincinnati scored after Fingers left. Again, he did everything that could be asked. Again, it was not enough.
Two 15-inning games. Six combined innings of Rollie Fingers. Zero runs allowed. Two losses.
Fingers entered in the 10th inning with the score tied 3-3. He pitched 2 scoreless innings. Zero hits. Zero walks. Three strikeouts. WPA: +0.275.
Oakland won in the bottom of the 12th, one inning after Fingers left. For two innings, he held the door shut while Oakland's offense figured out how to score. This time, they figured it out in time.
Blue Moon Odom appeared in 6 games as Oakland's long reliever. He pitched 23.2 innings. His ERA was 1.90. He never gave up more than 1 earned run in any appearance.
He went 0-6.
Zero wins. Six losses. A 1.90 ERA. He was the second Gullett - a pitcher punished not for pitching badly but for pitching well in games his team could not win.
In 23.2 innings of relief, Odom allowed 5 earned runs total. That is a dominant performance. He struck out 16 batters. He held opposing lineups to a .178 batting average. And every single game he appeared in, Oakland lost.
His WPA was +0.961 - positive. He made Oakland's chances of winning better in nearly every appearance. The cold mathematics said he helped. The cold record said he lost. Every time.
Odom's longest appearance. He entered in the 8th inning and pitched through the 13th. Five and two-thirds innings. 3 hits allowed. 1 earned run. 3 strikeouts. His WPA was +0.673 - the highest single-game WPA of any reliever in any game in the multiverse except Rollie Fingers.
He kept Oakland alive for nearly six extra innings. He was the reason the game lasted 13 innings. And then Cincinnati scored in the 13th, and Odom took the loss.
His best performance in 35 timelines. An L.
Odom pitched 5 innings in a 15-inning game. 3 hits. 1 earned run. 4 strikeouts. He entered in the 8th and pitched through the 12th. Another marathon. Another dominant performance.
Another L.
Fourteen innings. Zero Oakland runs.
Odom pitched 4 innings in relief - the 8th through the 11th. He allowed 2 hits. He walked 6 batters. He allowed 0 runs. Zero earned, zero unearned. For four innings, Odom walked a tightrope, and never fell.
Cincinnati scored in the 14th, three innings after Odom left. The game's only run came long after Odom had done everything he could to prevent it from coming at all.
Tom Hall appeared in 15 different timelines for Cincinnati. He pitched 22 innings. He allowed 1 earned run. His ERA was 0.41.
One earned run in 22 innings of World Series relief.
He struck out 19 batters and gave up 6 hits. He went 2-1 with a WPA of +1.559. In 13 of his 15 appearances, he allowed zero runs. In the other two, he allowed a combined 1 earned run.
The multiverse did not notice. Nobody writes about Tom Hall. Nobody puts Tom Hall on a themed list page. He pitched 22 innings of essentially perfect relief in the biggest games of his life and the story is about someone else.
Hall pitched the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings with the score tied or Cincinnati trailing. Zero hits allowed. 3 strikeouts. WPA: +0.413. He held Oakland scoreless long enough for Cincinnati to tie the game in the 9th and win it in the 12th.
After Oakland scored 6 in the 7th, Hall entered in the 8th and pitched 2 scoreless innings while Cincinnati mounted its comeback. Zero hits. 2 strikeouts. WPA: +0.337. He shut the door while the Machine revved to life.
Clay Carroll appeared in only 5 games. He pitched 8.2 innings. He allowed zero earned runs. His ERA was 0.00. His WPA was +1.432.
Zero earned runs in five appearances: that's a lights-out reliever.
Carroll's longest appearance. He pitched the 11th through the middle of the 15th inning. 2 hits allowed. 3 strikeouts. Zero runs. WPA: +0.549. He held Oakland scoreless for nearly four innings until Cincinnati scored the winning run in the top of the 15th.
Carroll pitched the 12th and 13th innings of the 14-inning shutout. 1 hit allowed. Zero runs. WPA: +0.411. He bridged the gap between Odom (Oakland's reliever, who left after the 11th) and the winning run in the 14th.
Pedro Borbon appeared in 17 games for Cincinnati. He pitched 30.1 innings. His ERA was 1.48. His WPA was +2.067.
Those are excellent numbers. Those are the numbers of a reliable, high-leverage reliever. Those are also the numbers of a man who blew 3 saves.
Borbon had 3 save opportunities and converted 3 of them. He also blew 3 other save situations. He was both Cincinnati's most-used reliever and their most chaotic one. In his 17 appearances, he posted WPA above +0.200 in 7 games and WPA below -0.100 in 5 games. He was either saving the game or setting it on fire.
Borbon's masterpiece. Six full innings of relief - the 7th through the 12th - without allowing a run. 2 hits. 2 strikeouts. WPA: +0.857. The highest single-game WPA of any Cincinnati reliever in the multiverse. He held Oakland scoreless for six innings, and Cincinnati won in the 13th.
Borbon entered with a 2-1 lead in the 8th. He gave up 4 hits and 2 runs in 1.1 innings. WPA: -0.269. Oakland took the lead and won. The man who would later pitch 6 scoreless innings in Timeline 25 could not get through the 8th inning in Timeline 6.
Seven relievers pitched significant innings in the multiverse. Here they are, ranked by WPA:
Rollie Fingers (OAK): 25 games, 41.0 IP, 1.32 ERA, WPA +2.713
Pedro Borbon (CIN): 17 games, 30.1 IP, 1.48 ERA, WPA +2.067
Vida Blue (OAK): 12 games, 17.2 IP, 0.51 ERA, WPA +1.562
Tom Hall (CIN): 15 games, 22.0 IP, 0.41 ERA, WPA +1.559
Clay Carroll (CIN): 5 games, 8.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, WPA +1.432
Blue Moon Odom (OAK): 6 games, 23.2 IP, 1.90 ERA, WPA +0.961
Ed Sprague (CIN): 12 games, 17.2 IP, 0.51 ERA, WPA +0.917
Every reliever on both teams posted a positive WPA. Every single one. That means every reliever, across both teams, made his team more likely to win than to lose when he was on the mound.
The combined ERA of all seven relievers: 1.08.
One point zero eight. Seven relievers. 161 combined innings. 1.08 ERA. That is not a bullpen. That is a wall. Both teams had it. Both teams could hold any lead and extend any tie. The bullpens were so good that games could not end. The starters left, the relievers entered, and the games went on and on and on because nobody could score.
Nine games went to extra innings. The bullpens are why.
The bullpen war was not won by one team. It was fought to a draw by both. And in a war of attrition between two equally dominant bullpens, the team that wins is the team whose offense finally breaks through. That team, 8 times out of 9 in extra innings, was Cincinnati.
The bullpens held the door. Cincinnati eventually kicked it in.