A vanishing accept of baseball is a complete game. When lefty Robbie Ray of the Arizona Diamondbacks cruised along, shut down the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night and filtered his effort with a string of shutout innings, the temptation was to leave Ray alone.
That might include going the distance, but the nature of the game has changed drastically over the past decades. If Ray was pitching in the 1950s or 1960s, and regardless of a pitch count, he likely would have remained in the game. With a greater emphasis on conditioning, the advent of technology and a concerted effort to preserve a pitcher’s long-term production, complete games are now shoved to the back burner.