With Major League Baseball widely expected to implement the universal DH in 2022, Sunday's Game 5 of the World Series marks potentially the last game in which pitchers are required to hit. If this is indeed the end of the road, the journey reached a most fitting conclusion.
After Houston's Framber Valdez was knocked out in the third inning, Astros manager Dusty Baker was forced to go to his bench earlier than he likely anticipated. Rather than burn a position player in Valdez's scheduled fourth-inning plate appearance, Baker instead went with perhaps the best available bat at his disposal: Zack Greinke.