I have always been a big fan of Kevin Cash. I've been paying attention to him since he became the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays before the 2015 season, but especially since he (along with the Rays' front office) implemented the concept of the Opener in 2018. I was fascinated by the idea, and really fascinated by how well it worked. The Rays had tremendous success with this system, using hard-throwing bullpen arms to start games and face the top of the opposition order, before bringing in one of their more traditional "rotation" arms as the “bulk guy", to pitch the bulk of the game. (The Rays did continue to use Tyler Glasnow and ace Blake Snell as traditional starters that season.) Since that time, Cash, working in tandem with the rest of the Rays brain trust, has consistently been one of the most innovative and exciting managers in baseball, and was a huge inspiration to me during my two seasons as manager of an amateur baseball team in Buenos Aires, during which time my team gained promotion from the third division to the second division in my first season, and reached the second division championship in my second season. And as Ben Clemens wrote in an article on Cash and the Rays for FanGraphs on October 21, the day of Game 2 of the World Series, "he’s pushed the right button at seemingly every turn."
Then came Tuesday night.
The Rays came into Game 6 of the World Series trailing the Dodgers three games to two, and they gave the ball to their ace, Blake Snell. Snell proceeded to throw a masterpiece. Through five innings, he gave up one hit and no runs and struck out nine, and absolutely owned the Dodgers. He had their entire lineup off balance, making hitters look uncomfortable; they were unable to do anything against him. "We didn't hit him at all," said Cody Bellinger after the game. "He was nasty today. He was on his A-game."
"He was tough all night," said Corey Seager. "You tip your cap to him. He threw a hell of a ballgame. He had us off balance, he made pitches, we grinded, we battled, and we didn't really have an answer for him."
Snell got A.J. Pollock to pop out for the first out of the sixth. Then, Austin Barnes, the 9-hitter, lined a base hit to center field.
Cue this article's cover photo.
Kevin Cash took Blake Snell out of a World Series game that he was utterly dominating, with one out in the sixth inning, having given up two hits and no runs. He had thrown 73 pitches.
Mookie Betts, due up next, looked back at his manager Dave Roberts and smiled.
[An aside: I get it. Obviously, you can give me all your reasons for why you made the move to the bullpen at this moment. You've got the top of the order coming up, Betts, Seager, Turner (R, L, R); it's the third time through the order; you want to get the right hander in there to face Betts, and prevent the top of their order seeing Snell a third time through. Cash had said the night before that the Rays were going to "get aggressive" with their bullpen in Game 6; and as that FanGraphs article referenced at the top of this piece points out, this is the way Cash has managed his bullpen all year, and it's what's gotten them to the World Series. But on this night, that top of the order of Betts, Seager, and Turner were a combined 0-for-6 with six strikeouts. Snell hadn't just navigated this fearsome one-through-three; he had made them look bad. Living by the third-time-through-the-order rule does not come close to justifying the removal of Snell from this performance.]
But there's another consideration beyond the numbers and analytics. This is the World Series, a win-or-go-home game, and your ace is on the mound. He's pitching at the top of his game, and the opposing hitters can't figure him out. They're begging for this guy to come out of the game. When you take him out with one out in the sixth, you're not just making your team weaker, you're giving a huge confidence boost to the other team.
"I was pretty happy because he was dominating us, and we just weren't seeing him," said Roberts. "We were all kind of excited that Snell was out of the game."
"Once he came out, it uplifted us a little bit, for sure," said Seager. "We started feeling a little momentum, we scratched a few runs, and we ended up winning."
And said Bellinger: "I was shocked. I was like, 'what is going on?' We were kinda joking around in the dugout, like 'way to get him out in the sixth!' That was what we wanted to do, get him out in the sixth."
The Dodgers rallied around Snell's departure, scoring two runs in that sixth inning, which would ultimately be enough for them to win Game 6 and the World Series.
Even Joe Buck, shocking though it may be, offered an interesting perspective, speaking on the modern game and specifically Cash's decision: "Managers are looking for any reason to get a guy out of the game, instead of looking for the reasons to keep a guy in the game."
But beyond even all that, there's still another element to this, the element that makes Cash's move utterly inexcusable: Blake Snell is your guy. Snell is your ace. Snell is a Cy Young Award winner. And he's pitching the game of his life, in Game 6 of the World Series. He is rolling. This is his game. These are the situations where history is made.
Kevin Cash took his Cy Young ace out of a game he was utterly dominating, in the World Series, with two hits and no runs allowed, nine strikeouts, one out in the sixth inning, and 73 pitches thrown. This was not just a bad baseball move; this was disrespectful. It was disrespectful to Snell, it was disrespectful to his team, and it was disrespectful to the game of baseball itself. And when you disrespect the game of baseball, the baseball gods usually have their say. And they did.
