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Maternal and Family Health Services CEO Betty Saxton named to committee

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Rockies top Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings in epic wild-card game

<p>NEW YORK &#8212; Fittingly, Liam Hendriks wore his cap backward. A reliever is going to start a team&#8217;s postseason opener.</p><p>A pitcher with no wins in the regular season.</p><p>A pitcher cut from the 40-man roster in June who spent two months toiling in the minor leagues.</p><p>A pitcher from Down Under who was happy to get medieval in New York.</p><p>&#8220;Instead of the starter going six and handing it over to the bullpen or going five and handing it over to the bullpen, now we&#8217;re just reversing it,&#8221; Oakland&#8217;s Australian right-hander said Tuesday, a day ahead of the Athletics&#8217; AL wild card game against the New York Yankees.</p><p>New York&#8217;s Aaron Boone made a more conventional choice for his postseason game as a manager, picking Luis Severino over J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka. Severino created a bullpen night in last year&#8217;s wild card game but not by design, lasting just one out and leaving with a three-run deficit against Minnesota in a game the Yankees rallied to win 8-4.</p><p>Oakland manager Bob Melvin has been scrambling because of injuries to starting pitchers Jharel Cotton, Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea, Paul Blackburn, Andrew Triggs and Daniel Gossett. Yet, the A&#8217;s finished second in the AL West at 97-65, their best record in 16 years, and their relievers went 45-16, the second-most bullpen wins in big league history behind Tampa Bay&#8217;s 54 this year.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been a struggle between old-school mentality and sabermetrics, and this is a way to kind of incorporate sabermetrics with effectiveness,&#8221; Oakland closer Blake Treinen said. &#8220;You can&#8217;t say going a starter for seven innings is the best way. You can&#8217;t say that going an opener is the best way. But this is what&#8217;s going to work for us, and we&#8217;re going to ride it out, and we have full faith in whoever makes the decisions. I&#8217;m excited to see what this game does because it&#8217;s kind of a first of its kind, and I think we all fully embrace that.&#8221;</p><p>Yankees reliever Zach Britton, a two-time All-Star reliever with Baltimore, said this new method was unfathomable just five years ago. Views started to change when the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians used bullpens in a non-traditional manner in the 2016 postseason. Tampa Bay was 46-38 with regular starters this year and 44-34 when opening with relievers.</p><p>&#8220;I think the data shows that it&#8217;s an effective way,&#8221; Britton said. &#8220;The hitters, they&#8217;re not able to get comfortable off a starter. There&#8217;s a new guy possibly every time you come to the plate. So it&#8217;s a good strategy, and you know why teams are starting to do it, because it&#8217;s effective.&#8221;</p><p>Hendriks, a 29-year-old in his third season with Oakland, started for Minnesota (2011-14) and Kansas City (2014) before Toronto converted him to the bullpen in 2015. He had a 7.36 ERA in 13 relief appearances this season when he was designated for assignment on June 25 to clear a roster spot for Edwin Jackson.</p><p>Then 40-38, the A&#8217;s won their next six games and 11 of 13.</p><p>&#8220;Apparently I&#8217;m a pariah,&#8221; Hendriks said jokingly.</p><p>After 21 appearances with Triple-A Nashville, he was brought back on Sept. 1 when active rosters expanded to 40. As Hendriks was checking into a hotel in Oakland that day, he received a telephone call from pitching coach Scott Emerson.</p><p>&#8220;&#8216;By the way, you&#8217;re going to start today,&#8217;&#8221; Hendriks recalled Emerson telling him. &#8220;I got to the field about an hour later, and it was kind of, &#8216;Yep, we&#8217;re going to try this opening thing, see how it goes.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Hendriks was removed with the score 0-0 after 30 pitches and five outs, and Danny Coulombe allowed Ben Gamel&#8217;s two-run double. The A&#8217;s tied a club record by using nine pitchers in an 8-7 loss to Seattle. After that, Hendriks pitched seven shutout innings in his last seven starts, allowing four hits.</p><p>His fastball velocity was 97 mph in September, up 3-4 mph from earlier this season.</p><p>&#8220;I think it was a big wake-up call for him, because he hadn&#8217;t been in that position for quite a while,&#8221; Melvin said of the demotion. &#8220;Maybe a little bit more focused in what he&#8217;s doing now.&#8221;</p><p>Hendriks received a text from Melvin at 10:58 a.m. informing him of the decision. The pitcher calls himself an &#8220;opener,&#8221; not a starter, and it&#8217;s unclear who will follow. The only starter expected to be on Oakland&#8217;s roster Wednesday is Edwin Jackson.</p><p>What is clear is Hendriks will be only the fourth pitcher to commence a postseason game after a regular season of no wins, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.</p><p>Virgil Trucks started twice for Detroit in the 1945 World Series after returning from World War II and making one regular-season appearance. Milwaukee&#8217;s Yovani Gallardo returned from a torn knee ligament in 2008 and St. Louis&#8217; Chris Carpenter came back from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in 2012.</p><p>After arriving in New York, Hendriks went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday.</p><p>&#8220;My wife wanted to go see the Heavenly Bodies exhibit, which was incredible, and then I was super ecstatic to see all the medieval armor because that&#8217;s what I love,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I am reading a book now about the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. So it&#8217;s all about medieval French and English and all of that.&#8221;</p><p>___</p><p>More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_121376103-f91cc9bb23d94048bdc1b06958884bd0.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Reliever Liam Hendriks will start for the Oakland Athletics in Wednesday night&#8217;s AL wild card game against Luis Severino and the New York Yankees. Hendriks will be only the fourth pitcher to start a postseason game after a regular season of no wins, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_121376103-f91cc9bb23d94048bdc1b06958884bd0.jpg</photo0><caption0>Reliever Liam Hendriks will start for the Oakland Athletics in Wednesday night&#8217;s AL wild card game against Luis Severino and the New York Yankees. Hendriks will be only the fourth pitcher to start a postseason game after a regular season of no wins, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. </caption0><photoCredit0>Patrick Semansky | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18275671148786.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Yankees players take batting practice during a team workout before their upcoming American League wild card game against the Athletics on Tuesday in New York. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_AP18275671148786.jpg</photo1><caption1>Yankees players take batting practice during a team workout before their upcoming American League wild card game against the Athletics on Tuesday in New York. </caption1><photoCredit1>Frank Franklin II | AP photo </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Ronald Blum</p><p>AP Baseball Writer</p></bylineMeta></div>

Seeking relief, A’s to start Hendriks against Yankees’ Severino in wild card game