The postseason changes everything with pitching as witnessed in the Wild Card games. A quick hook that would make Sparky Anderson proud. Sparky was known as “Captain Hook” in the 1970’s when he managed Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine.” The fact is when your rotation is a bit tender you go to your strength and that was Anderson’s bullpen.
Looking at Fangraphs the top bullpens in the American League for 2017 were the Indians, Yankees, Red Sox and Astros. In September the figures were quite similar, but the Rays took over the third slot dropping Boston to fifth.