McAdam: Baseball risks losing epic pitching matchups as 'opener' concept takes hold

It was a picture-perfect, Indian Summer day at Fenway, and even though the outcome was largely unimportant -- the Red Sox have all but clinched the top spot in the A.L. East while the Mets descended into irrelevance back in May -- it was a special afternoon.

The attraction? Chris Sale vs. Jacob deGrom.

A case could be made that it was a matchup of the two best starters in the game.

It's the kind of game fans circle on their calendar and anticipate for days. There have been some celebrated pitching matchups over the years at Fenway -- Vida Blue vs. Sonny Siebert in 1971; Jim Palmer vs. Luis Tiant in 1974; numerous Roger Clemens-Dave Stewart gems in the late 1980s and early 1990s; and, of course, a few Clemens-Pedro Martinez special events, too.

Those sort of duels enhance the game and promise something extra.

But in the modern game, they're becoming increasingly rare. For one thing, there seem to fewer and fewer legitimate aces in baseball. Sale and deGrom, certainly, are in that exclusive club. Corey Kluber, too, and Justin Verlander qualify. So do Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw.

Beyond that, starting pitchers have devolved  into serving as the first men in relay races, tasked with getting the team to the fifth inning, after which a parade of relievers will combine to the get the remaining outs. Complete games are nearly extinct, but at this point, seven innings or more from a starter are becoming a rarity, too.

Worse, the idea of teams using ''openers'' -- that is, having a start pitch an inning or so, before a long man comes in to throw four or five innings before the late-inning relievers finish things off -- as advanced by the Tampa Bay Rays, is being studied by more and more teams. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, other teams could copy the plan next season.

This isn't to denigrate the Rays for thinking outside the box. After all, the concept has worked for them and their model. The Rays, improbably, are going to win 90 games, or close to it. So good for them.

But something gets lost when that happens, when the notion of actual starting pitchers begins to fade away. In a few years, the job title may not exist, as "starting pitchers'' go the way of milkmen and cobblers and become all but extinct.

Sale, for one, desperately hopes that doesn't happen. (And yes, technically, Sale served as something of an "opener'' himself Sunday and in his previous appearance, but that's a reflection of his physical status and not some strategic design).

"I'm not the biggest fan (of the concept of the opener) just for that reason,'' Sale told BostonSportsJournal.com. "People come to see (David) Price vs. Gerrit Cole, and (Justin) Verlander vs. (Rick) Porcello and those kind of matchups. And it also puts people in different positions for later on, and where you're going to be with your innings without starts. You might have someone with 40 starts, but having only 65 innings. And some of it may be economically motivated too, and I think that's crap, too. If you have a guy (capable of) throwing six innings out of your bullpen, he should be starting the game.

"But at the end of the day, what are you going to say when (teams like Rays) have success with it. But you risk losing those marquee pitching matchups. You're going to have a guy in the bullpen with 160 innings and they're not going to get the recognition or credit they deserve with the situations they're being put in.''

Like many other top starters, Sale went out of his way to downplay the notion that he's pitching against the other starter. "I pitch against the other lineup,'' he said, "so I've never been one to say, 'Oh, I'm pitching against this person today, so I have to do this.' No matter who's on the other side, I want to do my best. My mindset never changes based on who's pitching for them. Competitively, there's never a different outlook on it.''

But Sale is also quick to recognize that his vantage point isn't the same as the ones fans have.

"One hundred percent, no doubt,'' he said. "It's the same reason you like certain football games, or when Ronaldo and Messi play against one another. You're looking at two guys or two teams at the top of their game, going against one another, and you just like to see what happens. It's part of that passion for sports.

"I respect and understand why people like those kinds of (pitchers' duels) and I think it would  be a big loss for the game if that went away.''