Hurdle barks back on protecting pitchers taken in St. Louis (Courtesy of StepOutside.org)

This will be Clint Hurdle's view of Busch Stadium tonight. - DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

ST. LOUIS -- The year is 2019. And people who follow baseball still express skepticism about the need to protect pitchers' arms.

That's how I began phrasing the question for Clint Hurdle on this Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium, the day after he and the Pirates made multiple decisions to protect pitchers' arms that might or might not have contributed to a miserable 9-6 loss to the Rangers back at PNC Park when Michael Feliz blew up a four-run lead in the eighth inning.

The rest of my question: Will the broader baseball culture, particularly on the outside, ever accept that a pitcher flat-out wasn't available to participate in a given game?

"I hear it a lot," Hurdle opened his reply. "As long as you win, nobody asks."

Well, I came back, there's that.

"That's the biggest part of it, though, if you really want to get real. And truthfully, most of the people who ask, do they really care about the person's health? Do they care how many pitches they've thrown? Do they really care? Do they know how many pitches Liriano's thrown in the past six days?"

I'd looked it up: Francisco Liriano's thrown 94 pitches in six days. He pitched a scoreless seventh inning Wednesday against the Rangers, and some fans clamored for more. But it had been determined before the game that Liriano, 35, would be available for one inning. Not just by Hurdle. But by Hurdle, Neal Huntington, Ray Searage and others. That's how it works for all pitchers.

"Liriano's thrown 94 pitches. But do you care?" Hurdle continued, and he was just getting warmed up. "That was the big question yesterday, right? 'Can't he throw one more inning?' If you don't care, sure he can! The night before, I had the same conversation about how'd I leave that same guy out there with the bases loaded, but he throws 22 pitches and gets out of the inning."

Liriano did precisely that, then still deemed himself available for the matinee the next day.

"It's maddening from that standpoint," Hurdle kept on before finally swinging back to my original question. "I don't know if we ever will get to that point. I don't know if we ever will. But that's not important to me. I need to know. The players need to know. The pitching coach needs to know."

About their availability, he meant.

"Because we need to plan for 162 games. We also need to plan when you've got a high-end closer."

This is when he switched up to Felipe Vazquez.

"I got a question yesterday, 'Why wasn't he up in the eighth?' With a four-run lead. After he'd pitched three of four days."

The eighth, of course, was when Feliz had loaded the bases for Hunter Pence, who'd go on to hit what felt like an eminently predictable grand slam. Vazquez had been deemed available only for a one-inning save. Kyle Crick, who'd also seen extensive action, had been deemed unavailable altogether.

"So I guess a save situation can mean Felipe could come in for the eighth. With a four-run lead. ... If you don't care, sure he can. But I think there was collateral damage from him throwing 43 pitches over the previous four days, and we're the ones tracking all that."

That includes every warmup pitch every time a reliever gets up. Euclides Rojas, the bullpen coach, handles that.

"I don't know," Hurdle said. "But I know what we need to know. And I know how we need to deal with it to best serve our team and our players. And I think it adds human capital when the players know you're working with them, not against them, and you do care."

Crick's unavailability was the headline event Wednesday. The eighth inning is generally his. So I asked Crick here how he felt about all the fuss and, after he reminded me that "I don't look at social media ever," he did respond, "People think we're robots, I guess. Look at how Frankie's pitching, how Felipe's pitching. That doesn't happen by accident. If people aren't available, there's a reason for that. We're not the ones who make that decision, but we respect it."

And does Crick think the outside perception will ever change?

"Doesn't matter to me, man. People here are doing what's best for the team."

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