It was a bit controversial amongst fans when Major League Baseball announced that extra innings games would begin with a runner on second base. Some people loved it, others hated that it broke long-standing tradition.
Regardless of their feelings about it, the Cleveland Guardians knew they needed to come up with a plan. As it turns out, they've needed more than 9 innings 18 times this year.
If you're going to win in extra innings nowadays, you need to have a really powerful reliever who can strike guys out.
Cleveland has just the guy for the job.
James Karinchak opened the season on the Injured List with a back strain and didn't appear for the Guardians until July 4 in Detroit. But once he got into a rhythm, he's been unbelievable - arguably the best reliever in the game.
Karinchak has given up just one run and four hits during his last 10 appearances. He's struck out 15 batters during that stretch and he's recorded just one walk in the last 8.2 innings.
In fact, among qualified relievers, since the All-Star break, he leads Major League Baseball in strikeouts (46), he's third in opponents batting average (.135) and third in ERA (0.89).
His arsenal isn't all that complicated. He features a four-seam fastball and a curveball, but there's quite a difference between the two. His averaged fastball velocity this season is 95.2 mph and his curveball on average comes in at 82.9 mph.
But perhaps more than any stat can quantify, the guy is just a flat out competitor. It's so much fun to watch him pitch because he wears his emotions on his sleeves and he relishes the most critical moments.
He finally allowed a run on September 9 at Minnesota, snapping a stretch of 24.2 consecutive scoreless frames. That was the longest scoreless streak for a Cleveland relief pitcher since Dan Spillner in 1982 and was nearly twice as long as any other stretch in his career.
He's powerful, his fastball really jumps out of his hand and it's been extremely difficult for opponents to barrel anything up against him.
Karinchak is also a little jumpy, a little twitchy on the mound. Even though he's comfortable on the mound, there's no way you can feel perfectly comfortable facing him. It can't be fun standing in the box against a guy who is as fidgety as he is. Despite the fact his control isn't an issue, watching him feels like he's unpredictable.
Cleveland is 13-5 in extra inning games this year and they played nine of those games (7-2 record) before Karinchak even came back to the club. Cleveland certainly has other guys that have excelled in tight spots this year - we've gone this long without even mentioning that the Guardians have the best closer in the league this year with Emmanuel Clase.
While they sure hope they don't have to go to extra innings very often down the stretch of the season, Cleveland just might have the best weapon in the league if they do.
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