Alan Truex: McCullers is baseball’s great swingman — starter or reliever

There’s little question that the Houston Astros have the best 5-man starting rotation in baseball.  They also have the best 6-man rotation, which some teams, such as the Mets, use from time to time.

But it would be better for the Astros if two of their six quality starters were quality relievers.

A decade ago it was assumed that starting pitching was the most valuable asset in the postseason.  But we have reached an era in which more innings come from the bullpen than from the starting rotation.

And this is where Houston has a problem, a bullpen that probably would have blown the American League Championship if not for a complete game by Justin Verlander and 4 innings of scoreless closing by one of the six starters, Lance McCullers Jr.

Entering Tuesday night’s Game 1 of the World Series, Houston had only four relievers with postseason ERA’s under 4.50, and three of those were normally starters: Verlander, McCullers and Collin McHugh.

The team’s lone reliable designated reliever is Luke Gregerson.  This is the same Gregerson who was so unnoticed during the regular season, with his 2-3 and 4.57 ERA.

The Dodgers would seem to hold the upper hand in the all-important bullpen, considering that their relief pitchers threw 17 scoreless innings at the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS.

While the Dodgers’ bullpen was lights-out, the Astros’ was a firestorm.  

Manager A.J. Hinch turned his bullpen upside down during the ALCS.  He buried the set-up man, Will Harris, and the once-admired middle reliever, Chris Devenski with his Circle of Death changeup.

Hinch had reason for the banishments.  In this postseason Devenski has appeared in five games, faced 16 batters, and 7 of them have reached base.  Similar with Harris: three appearances, 10 at bats, 4 hits, a walk.  You can’t blame Hinch for doubting that either is ready to step up to the biggest stage.

Hinch also would like more consistency from his closer, Ken Giles, who has a frightful 7.50 ERA for the postseason but did a reassuring job of closing out Game 6 with elimination on the line.

So other than Giles and Gregerson, the Houston bullpen for the World Series will consist of starters, the most important of which is McCullers, who finished off the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS with four shutout innings to follow Charlie Morton’s 5 scoreless to start.

McCullers is a rare talent, and he exudes a natural swagger that only the greatest athletes possess.  His last 24 pitches to the Yankees were all curveballs.  He knows they can’t hit it, that nobody can.  Even if you know it’s coming.

An old batting coach, Tom McCraw, once told me, “Nobody can hit a good curveball.  What they hit is the curves that aren’t quite good.”

McCullers is that rare pitcher who can throw a power curve – at 86 mph – that the Dodgers, like the Yankees, will not be able to hit.

He has long been an untouchable asset of the Astros franchise, a passionate baseball lifer, son of a big-league pitcher.

He’s a likable young man, not self-centered.  He’s one of many Astros players who comforted the evacuees of Hurricane Harvey.  “That patch on our shirt, Houston Strong,” he said, “means the world to us.”

Unfortunately, with McCullers you never know how long the flame will burn.  He’s consistent, pitching 81 -121 innings in each of his three big-league seasons.

As with many power pitchers, he puts too much strain on his body to keep from breaking down from time to time.  He took a break this season after 100 innings when he had “arm fatigue.”

But at the moment he’s at the top of his game, and Hinch will start him in Game 3 or 4 in Houston, depending on how he feels compelled to use him in LA.

For a Game 1 starter Hinch chose Dallas Keuchel, 2015 Cy Young Award winner.

Keuchel had to go on short rest, 3 days instead of 4, the sort of move that worked not so well for Trevor Bauer in the Cleveland Indians’ division series, which was as far as they got.

If he had wanted Keuchel to be at his best for two World Series starts, Hinch could have started McHugh, who pitched a solid final third of the season, 5-2 with a 3.55 ERA, 62 strikeouts in 63 innings.

McHugh ended up as the team’s sixth starter, behind Verlander, Keuchel, McCullers, Morton and Brad Peacock.

If you wonder about the depth of that rotation, consider that the 4-5 starters combined for a 27-9 won-lost record in the regular season.

McHugh bolstered his cause with 4 shutout innings in the ALCS.  But since he instantly became the team’s top-performing postseason reliever, Hinch has no desire to relieve him of that role.

Besides, the timing with Keuchel is tricky.  Do you want him on too little rest, or too much?   He’s due to pitch Wednesday on proper rest.  But that would push back the ace of aces, Verlander, to a Game 3 start.  Which means his second start would have to be Game 7.  And is that a bad thing?

However he plots his rotation and juggles his bullpen, Hinch will be endlessly second-guessed.  He could not have anticipated that Harris and Devenski would stumble.  Nor could he have expected McCullers to blossom.

Of course, the Astros will need more.  The reason they are solid underdogs is their bullpen.  They can count on 7-9 innings from Verlander, but other starters must be rescued, whether by each other or by fallen relievers who may have to be revived.

No pitching staff is static.  It’s possible Peacock (13-2 in the regular season) could step up in relief, where he has succeeded in the past.  It’s likely that McHugh can continue throwing quality middle innings.  And we may not have seen the best of McCullers.