:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57428129/868011408.0.jpg)
Seven months of baseball that counts, plus six weeks of spring training before that, all come down to this. Game 7 of the World Series is the end of the line, the one game to rule them all. The teams will be going home win or lose. Someone will triumph and someone’s heart will be broken. There is no other way for it to go for the Astros and Dodgers now.
Cliches will surely be out in force. There is no tomorrow. All hands on deck. The team that wants it more is going to win. And so on and so forth. A lot of it is probably nonsense, but there’s no doubt that this is an intense game with stakes unlike any other, and therefore decision-making that will be unlike any other.
The postseason being its own unique closed system for reliever decisions is something that we started to see last season. It’s happening even more this year, such as last night, when the Dodgers pulled their starter even though he hadn’t thrown very many pitches at all.
I expect a five hour game with a billion pitching changes tonight. Maybe there will be some excitement mixed in with all of that, somewhere. Someone will know what Orioles fans felt like in 1979. Others will know what Pirates fans felt like in 1979.