By Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Forty-five-year-old Jamie Moyer did it for Philadelphia, and 24-year-old Matt Garza did it for Tampa Bay. The New York Mets' Johan Santana, who earned $19 million this season, did it, and so did Minnesota's Scott Baker, who makes just $422,500. Milwaukee's CC Sabathia did it three times in a row -- and somehow lived to tell about it -- while Chicago White Sox teammates Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd and Javier Vázquez did it two times apiece.

They all pitched on three days' rest, in some cases multiple times, during a captivating stretch run that may have done nothing less than redefine the unwritten parameters of pitcher usage for future years. And with the playoffs set to start tomorrow, it seems likely we could see more examples of pitchers taking the mound on short rest -- a move once reserved for only the most desperate situations -- than in recent memory.

During the exhilarating three weeks between Sept. 9 and yesterday's regular season finale -- a makeup game between the White Sox and Detroit Tigers that, with Chicago's 8-2 win, resulted in one-game playoff today against Minnesota -- pitchers for contending teams made a total of 20 starts on three days' rest, compared with only six during the corresponding three weeks in 2007.

Entering Floyd's start in Monday's makeup game, the 19 previous starts made on three days' rest this month -- by a total of 15 pitchers -- resulted in a 9-5 record and a 3.47 ERA for the starting pitchers themselves, and a 10-9 record for their teams, according to data at baseball-reference.com. Take away Chicago's Vázquez, who got pummeled twice, and the pitchers went 9-3 with a 2.65 ERA.

A large part of that success is due to one large man, the Brewers' Sabathia. The burly, 6-foot-7 left-hander, and a free-agent-in-waiting, became the first pitcher in five years to make three straight starts on short rest, and he went a combined 2-1 with a 0.83 ERA, punctuated by his heroic, 122-pitch complete-game four-hitter in the Brewers' clinching victory Sunday.

"These two weeks," Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin told reporters, "were one of the most unselfish things an athlete has ever done."

Will the Brewers, back in the playoffs for the first time since 1982, finally give their big fella a breather? Probably not. Short on starting pitching because of Ben Sheets's injury, they undoubtedly will ask Sabathia whether he can start in Game 2 of the Division Series against the Phillies on Thursday -- again on three days' rest.

And Sabathia already telegraphed his answer, telling reporters, "No doubt," when asked after Sunday's clincher whether he wanted to start Game 2 on short rest.

Until this month, Sabathia had not started a game on short rest in his entire life, at least as best he could recall. But that hardly makes him alone.

If Sabathia does start Game 2 of the Division Series, the 2008 postseason will already equal both the 2007 and 2006 postseasons for the number of times a pitcher starts on short rest. In 2007 -- despite plenty of speculation about who would or wouldn't -- only Chien-Ming Wang of the New York Yankees did it (a one-inning disaster in the loss that eliminated the Yankees), and in 2006 only Oliver Pérez of the New York Mets did it (six well-pitched innings in a 3-1 loss).

But before that, it happened far more frequently -- three times in 2005, six times in 2004 and eight times each in 2003 and 2001. Starting a pitcher on short rest is considered risky for two reasons -- it is believed to put a pitcher's arm at greater risk of injury, and it usually doesn't work. In this decade, in fact, teams are 10-26 when starting a pitcher on three days' rest in the postseason, while the pitchers themselves are 8-21 with a 5.08 ERA.

But baseball scientists have long known of the existence of special creatures whose arms can handle starting on short rest, and whose psyches demand it. In the 2001 World Series, Curt Schilling started Games 4 and 7 both on short rest (and Randy Johnson pitched in relief in Game 7 on zero days' rest).

In Game 6 of the 2003 World Series, needing one more win to clinch, the Florida Marlins gave the ball to a rookie named Josh Beckett, who, despite pitching on three' days rest, shut out the New York Yankees on five hits to secure the Marlins' championship.

Things had changed by the time Beckett returned to the postseason, in 2007 with the Boston Red Sox: His four postseason starts were made on five, eight, five and five days' rest -- although he was just as dominating, if not more so. The change was partly due to questions about Beckett's health and the fact he was much more of a financial investment at that point.

And it is all but certain Beckett will not be among the pitchers starting on short rest in this year's playoffs. Not only have the Red Sox not started anyone on short rest in the postseason since Bret Saberhagen in the 1999 Division Series, but Beckett is nursing a strained oblique muscle that forced the Red Sox to push him back to Game 3 in the first round against the Los Angeles Angels.

One development that could greatly boost the number of short-rest starts this postseason is the White Sox getting in. While many old-timers pine for the good old days of the four-man rotation -- which gradually grew extinct during the 1970s and early 1980s, as teams shifted to the less-taxing five-man staff -- Manager Ozzie Guillén practically brought it back single-handedly this month.

With the White Sox fighting to make the playoffs, Guillén has used Buehrle, Floyd and Vázquez twice each on short rest during the season's final two weeks, including Floyd's start yesterday. "He's going to have a lot of rest -- maybe five months to get some rest," Guillén at one point told reporters, speaking of Buehrle.

Because the White Sox won yesterday, they are expected to start rookie John Danks in today's one-game playoff against the Twins.

You guessed it: Danks would be starting on short rest.