access to figures tracking the decline of starting pitchers

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The United States mens volleyball team was so devastated by Fridays five-set semifinal loss to Italy that coach John Speraw looked as if he were sitting at a funeral rather than at the standard postmatch news conference. He sounded that way as well.Its really, really, hard. I almost feel like today we need to mourn and get it out of our system, Speraw said. I know that we will. You cant not do that. But then tomorrow morning were going to have to regroup and start mentally preparing ourselves for the next match.The next match will be for the bronze medal rather than gold, which in some ways can be a more difficult challenge than going for gold.Three-time gold medalist Kerri Walsh-Jennings said that was the case for her after she and April Ross were upset in their beach volleyball semifinal this week, and she then played for bronze for the first time in her Olympic career. Thats because as much as everyone wants to win gold, at least the loser of the championship match goes home with a silver medal. Not so in the bronze-medal match. The winner of that match takes home a medal. The loser takes home mostly regret and disappointment.The Americans already had those latter emotions hanging around their necks after Fridays loss.I dont know what to say about that, Taylor Sander said. It happens, and it happened, and it sucks.Despite losing its first two matches in this tournament, the U.S. had recovered well (including an upset of Brazil) to advance to the semifinals. And as good as the Italian team is -- Speraw says it is the favorite to win gold -- the U.S. was in position to win several times.With the large crowd loudly and enthusiastically cheering for Italy, the U.S. had a four-point lead late in the first set with five set-point opportunities to win, only to fall 30-28 to the Italians. It recovered to win a close second set 28-26, then blew away Italy 25-9 in the third set. The U.S. also was in strong position to win the match with a 22-19 fourth-set lead, only to fail to score another point and lose 25-22.When a team loses like that in a set, youre going to get everything they have thrown back at you, Matt Anderson said of what it was like heading into the fourth set. I think we handled it well for most of that set, but there were a couple plays we could have taken care of better and taken a bigger lead and put us in a better spot.Italy then won the fifth set 15-9 in convincing fashion. While the Italians celebrated and the crowd went crazy, several of the U.S. players sat on the court stunned and teary-eyed by the loss.I thought we had so many opportunities to win this game in three or four sets, U.S. captain David Lee said. But in the big moments, the Italian team served the ball incredibly well, and that was the difference.Now the Americans have to recover and prepare for the bronze-medal match Sunday against the loser of the Russia-Brazil match. If its Brazil, the Americans will definitely have the fans roaring against them again. But they were able to draw energy from that fan excitement last week when they beat the host country and sent the crowd home much quieter. They need to do so again Sunday, or they will be so disappointed they could spend the closing ceremonies sitting and staring into space rather than marching and celebrating.I have all the faith in our guys to fight and be tough, Anderson said. Of course, there will be disappointment and setback the next couple hours. But were all in this together. Our goal was gold, and we cant have it now, so now our goal is bronze, and well take it on. Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping . 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CHICAGO -- Managers head to the mound and point to the bullpens so often in the postseason, it wouldnt be surprising if they need Tommy John surgery.Complete games have gone the way of spittoons, flannel uniforms and pregame infield practice.An average of 9.32 pitchers were used in this years postseason games heading into the World Series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, up from 8.16 in the 1996 and 5.70 in 1986.Matchup madness rules.A lot of it is just to protect your butt, that somebody else might have the information, so I better make sure that I make the move that they know I should be making instead of the move that I know I should be making, former big league manager Bobby Valentine said.All those pitching changes contribute to World Series games turning into the late, late show.After using a relative restrained three pitchers to win the opener 6-0, Cleveland sent seven to the mound for a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 2, and they needed 196 pitches to get 27 outs. The nine innings took 4 hours, 4 minutes to play.Through the league championship series, nine-inning postseason games averaged 3:22, up from 3:14 last year. The first four games of this years World Series averaged 3:38.Much of that time has been for trips to the mound.In the past you were looking for five really good starters. Thats always your focal point, Toronto manager John Gibbons said. Things have definitely changed but you can go back the last couple of years and look at the Royals, and the big talk was how they had those three guys late, actually four guys. The starter would go five or six innings and they would just turn it over to those guys. A lot of teams are trying to do the same.Back in the 1976 regular season, games averaged 4.83 pitchers, according to Elias. The figure rose to 5.59 by 1986, 6.88 a decade later, 7.70 in 2006 and 8.30 this year.Decades ago, aces were expected to finish what they started. San Diegos Randy Jones led the maajor leagues with 25 complete games in 1976 and Detroits Mark Fidrych had 24.ddddddddddddThis year, Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox topped the big leagues with six complete games and San Franciscos Johnny Cueto was second with five.Data has revolutionized the sport. When he was managing in the New York Yankees minor league system in the 1980s, Buck Showalter had his wife hand-write spray charts to show where opponents hit balls. Angela Showalter can now relax while watching her husband manage the Baltimore Orioles.Just before the start of this season, Major League Baseball reached a deal with Apple to have iPad Pros in dugouts, and managers have instant access to figures tracking the decline of starting pitchers effectiveness the third time through the batting order.Every manager would like their starter to go complete-game shutout, but I think that theres a certain point in the game where the starting pitcher is not being as effective, and you have other options, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. When you look at analytics or data, those are facts. So where certain options have shown better, then as manager it only makes sense to trust that information as well as your eyes.When they had Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances in his bullpen this season, the New York Yankees were confident any time they led after six innings. With relievers so prized, the Yankees dealt Chapman to the Cubs and Miller to the Indians for prized prospects.Cleveland manager Terry Francona has used Miller in the middle of games to shut down opponents.Right now matchups are en vogue, there is no question, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. Theyve been getting more and more that way over the last couple years.---AP Sports Writer Beth Harris and AP freelance writer Ian Harrison contributed to this report. ' ' '