I listed several Dodger pitchers who were decent to great. Sutcliffe was actually used a pinch hitter at times (.278 batting average, some power). A also acknowledged bunting to advance the runners.
My point was that if you were a good enough pitcher, you would be kept in the game even if you were a poor hitter. Yes, there were bullpens. Many teams just didn’t have the expansive bullpens for today. You had an occasional Rich Gossage or Bruce Sutter as a fireman or for the save, but many were just not just great. Many were Dick Tidrows or Lance Rautzhans who would be for long relief when the starter was getting shelled, or in case of an injury. Yes, in a close game a decent pitcher might be pulled for a pinch-hitter, but often not if there was no one decent in the bullpen or the arms were tired.
“My point was that if you were a good enough pitcher, you would be kept in the game even if you were a poor hitter.”
You know the sport, congrats. But the real thing about the earlier years of the game when offense was hurt by nothing but good pitching was in the 50’s and 60’s. !968 was the year they decided to lower the mound, bring in the fences, and change the ball and the strike zone. Pitchers were over powering the hitters. So they didn’t need an extended bull pen. Just a couple of starters, one maybe two long relief, and a closer.
And the expectations of hitter has changed. According to batting average leaders at mlb.com only eight hitters in all of major league baseball that have enough at bats are hitting over 300.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/batting-average.
Home runs are up, batting averages are down. So the expectation of a hitter delivering is less as they don’t do it as often. It all balances out in the end and the game survives on hype rather than success.
wy69