Royals' World Series Chances Should Not Be Hampered by Layoff

Multiple days off can be one of the most dreaded happenings during a baseball season. 

Players are entrenched in routine and habit from February to September. They do what they do day after day after day, and they always know there is a game on the way as sure as they know they are bound to disagree with an umpire during it.

These men credit hot streaks with regular play and blame slumps on erratic playing time. Either way, this shows the importance baseball players place on daily routine.

Now, the Kansas City Royals, by way of sweeping their way through the American League Championship Series, will have five days off between their clinching game against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday and Game 1 of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.

That, of course, brings up the rust-or-rest debate. The narrative comfortably nestles itself into the outcome. Win and the rest helped. Lose and the rust became too thick to overcome. The truth is, teams with layoffs are usually laid off because they are good, and history tends to tell us so.

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If the Royals lose the World Series, expect some silly talk about how the long rest hurt them. Remember this: http://t.co/UCIQ1JcJaZ

— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) October 16, 2014"

Recent history is not kind to teams with layoffs of at least five days heading into the World Series, with the Detroit Tigers (2006 and 2012), Colorado Rockies (2007) and Philadelphia Phillies (2009) all losing the final series after a long rest period.

But the bigger sample size tells us the days off are beneficial. Six teams from 1991-2005 had at least five days off and all six won the World Series.

And now we come to the Royals, circa 2014. Royals players discussed the pros and cons of days off following the two-day break between games two and three of the 2014 ALCS:

Despite them winning eight consecutive postseason games in a single year—the first team ever to do so—they aren’t your typical dynamo team. They are a team that finished last in the majors in home runs during the regular season and clinched their trip to the World Series by never hitting the ball out of the infield to score the game’s two deciding runs.

They simply don’t win in ways that long layoffs can affect.

The Royals are built on jaw-dropping defense, blinding speed and a shutdown bullpen. And while the occasional home run has certainly helped them advance in these playoffs, the reasons they were in position for one swing to win them games is because of those three other vital attributes. Those things tend to not go into slumps because of days off.

That has already been proven this month. The Royals had four off days—the same number the Giants will have between their clinching game and Game 1 of the World Series—between them winning the American League Division Series and the start of the ALCS. In those days without games, they somehow did not lose their ability to catch, throw, run and pitch in relief. In fact, they rolled right through the Orioles, and even the power was still intact as they hit four home runs in the series.

What also didn’t dissolve in that time off was Kansas City’s ability to shorten games to six innings because of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. Those three relievers have been just as dominant in the postseason as they were from April through September.

History tells us that starting pitchers with at least a full week of rest going into Game 1 of the World Series don’t fare well, but assuming James Shields gets the ball on 10 days’ rest in Game 1, all he has to really do is get the Royals into the sixth inning with a lead, tie or minimal deficit.

That is because Royals manager Ned Yost is evolving before our eyes. Yost’s bullpen management has a suspect reputation, even as recently as the Wild Card Game against the Oakland A’s when he failed to tap his dominant relievers and instead went to a starter out of the bullpen with disastrous results.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Since then, Yost has undone the shackles on the back-end of his bullpen, allowing guys to pitch in innings outside their designated “roles.” Herrera pitched twice in the ALCS in the sixth inning with runners on base, once in a tied game and once with a one-run lead. Yost also brought in Davis, his eighth-inning guy, in the seventh of Game 1 of the ALDS with a man on third and two outs in a tied game.

At the start of these playoffs and at times in the regular season, it seemed Yost would never allow those two to pitch before their roles permitted. But Yost has learned how to manage his bullpen in high-leverage situations when every pitch is critical. These days off shouldn’t serve as a time of regression for Yost, but as a time to reflect on what he’s done correctly over the course of these playoffs. 

This off-time will also be used for pundits to discuss if the time off is beneficial or not, or about whether Major League Baseball should use more of a flex schedule for the World Series.

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#MLB should be flexible with World Series. No need to wait 5 days to start. That's not productive. Sport going dark that long is not great.

— David Lennon (@DPLennon) October 17, 2014"

The Royals will play this World Series after a five-day gap. If they win the championship, the layoff will be called beneficial. If they lose, it will crazily be blamed on rust. That makes about as much sense as them having to play the Giants in an even year.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.