While their modern metric use of pitching took center stage for the Tampa Bay Rays at the neutral-site World Series, there was something they and the Dodgers did just as routinely, just as mathematically, and arguably more successfully.
They acted like hockey teams.
They had line changes.
In Game 6 of the World Series, lefthanded-hitting Ji-Man Choi started the game, but in the seventh when a lefty entered for the Dodgers, the Rays shifted lines, to righthanded-hitting Yandy Diaz. Out went lefthanded-hitting Austin Meadows. In came righthanded-hitting Hunter Renfroe. The Dodgers started with righthanded-hitting A.J. Pollock in the outfield, and then when the Rays changed pitchers, LA put its magical matchup machine in motion and in came lefthanded-hitting Joc Pederson, and at times Chris Taylor would shift from second to left to get another righthanded hitter, Enrique Hernandez, in the mix.