I’ve been doing these daily questions for about half a year now, one every weekday, but I don’t know that I’ve had a purely rhetorical one. I’m not even sure this is a purely rhetorical question, but it’s
closer.
On Saturday night, the Tigers took a 1-0 lead in their playoff series over the Mariners by securing an extra-inning victory. Both teams went 1-2-3 in the tenth, but in the 11th, a leadoff walk, a wild pitch, and a super-weak hopper off the bat of personal favorite Zach McKinstry brought home the eventual winning run. Nowhere to be seen: a free runner placed at second base at the start of any half-inning. McKinstry’s lob up the middle scored a guy that had reached base by virtue of his own efforts.
So, I guess, I have this nagging question: why does MLB not use the free runner in the postseason? Is it because the postseason is meant to be “purer” or “fairer” or some other adjective that precludes the free runner? Is it just because everyone wants regular season games to be over as quickly as possible, but that doesn’t apply to the playoffs? If so, why not just have ties or whatever?
It’s not like there’s no standard or precedent, either: there are penalty kicks in soccer sometimes but not in every game, just to name one. But this one just feels weird. “The free runner structure isn’t good enough to determine who advances in a tournament, but we’ll use it every time to help determine who goes into the tournament.” Just feels off to me, like the incongruity was purposefully inserted to make my head hurt rather than anything else.
Anyway, what do you think?
