Original educational analysis
Brewers–Rays: more bullpen innings did not mean more pitches
By Sports Forensics editorial analysis
Published October 28, 2026, 05:19 PM PDT · Statistics checked October 28, 2026, 04:24 PM PDT
Milwaukee’s relievers recorded more outs than Tampa Bay’s through the first four games of the 2026 World Series. They also threw fewer pitches. MLB’s completed box scores show why bullpen innings and pitch totals describe different parts of the work, even before considering which individual pitchers carried it.
Counting every appearance after each game’s starting pitcher, the Brewers received 63 outs from relief pitching: 21 innings. The Rays received 59 outs: 19⅔ innings. Milwaukee therefore had four more relief outs, or 1⅓ innings, across the games played October 23, 24, 26 and 27. These are historical totals and exclude October 28’s Game 5.
The pitch-count comparison ran the other way. Milwaukee’s relief appearances added up to 315 pitches; Tampa Bay’s totaled 371. The Rays threw 56 more relief pitches while recording four fewer relief outs. Dividing pitches by outs gives 315 ÷ 63 = 5.00 pitches per out for Milwaukee and 371 ÷ 59 = 6.29 for Tampa Bay. This is a description of the recorded appearances, not a league-standard fatigue measure.
Baseball’s innings notation matters to the calculation. A line of 1.2 means one inning and two outs, or five outs, rather than 1.2 decimal innings. Adding the outs first avoids that arithmetic trap. It also keeps a zero-out appearance visible in the pitch total: a pitcher can throw pitches without recording an out, so innings alone cannot capture every pitch delivered.
Game 4 illustrates the distinction within one contest. Each bullpen recorded 24 outs, or eight innings. Milwaukee’s relievers threw 123 pitches and Tampa Bay’s 131. Those equal relief innings formed part of different team totals: Milwaukee recorded 33 pitching outs and Tampa Bay 36. The game ended before Milwaukee could record the same number of defensive outs. Comparing total innings without checking which team actually pitched them would obscure that difference.
The classification here follows the appearance in each game, rather than assigning every pitcher a permanent starter or reliever label. A pitcher who started one game and entered later in another contributes only the latter appearance to the relief total.
Neither aggregate establishes who is available for Game 5. A team total can spread across several arms or concentrate on a few, and these calculations omit warmup pitches, recovery information and managerial plans. Pitches per out also does not isolate command: hits, walks, foul balls and other sequences can all lengthen an appearance. The practical observation is to track both the outs a bullpen must cover and the pitches used to obtain them, then examine the individual appearances before drawing conclusions about its next assignment.