NEW YORK — The one-game wild-card game often gets referred to as a cage match where teams will do anything to win.In this year’s edition of the American League play-in game http://www.redsoxproshops.com/authentic-j.-d.-martinez-jersey , the pitching approaches for the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics will be distinctly different Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.Luis Severino will start the wild-card game for the second straight season for the Yankees, while Oakland will use Liam Hendriks to begin the game and employ the opener strategy similar to what the Tampa Bay Rays used for portions of their season.Article continues below ...While both teams share similar records — the Yankees were 100-62 and the Athletics were 97-65 — their starting pitching was different.New York’s starting pitchers were 65-42 with a 4.05 ERA while working 861 2/3 innings. Oakland’s starters were 52-48 with a 4.17 ERA and their 824 1/3 innings were the lowest in franchise history in a non-strike season and the third-fewest in the American League.Severino’s contribution was going 19-8 with a 3.39 ERA, though his second half was different than his first half. Before the All-Star break, Severino was 14-2 with a 2.31 ERA in 20 starts, and after the break he was 5-6 with a 5.57 ERA in his last 12 starts.He allowed one run and five hits over six innings while getting a win in the Yankees’ 6-2 victory over Oakland on May 13. But one of those rough second-half starts occurred in Oakland on Sept. 5 when he allowed six runs in 2 2/3 innings of an 8-2 loss. Severino rebounded decently to go 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA over his final three starts.It was that body of work along with his overall numbers that led the Yankees to pick Severino over Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ.“Really excited to give him the ball tomorrow,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday afternoon. “I feel like after some bumps in the road, certainly the second half of the season, he’s turned a corner and really started to throw the ball better. I think he’s ready for this.”Severino will be starting the wild-card game for the second straight season. Last year against the Minnesota Twins, he recorded just one out and allowed three runs, forcing the Yankees to get 26 outs from their bullpen in an 8-4 win.Severino is 1-1 with a 5.63 ERA in four postseason starts and seemed to think last year’s rough time against the Twins was due to being too excited.“Maybe too excited trying to do too much,” Severino said. “But the good thing was that we won that game and we’ll move on and do a better job. But, yes, I think that was the main thing, I was too excited.”Should Severino struggle, the Yankees are planning on carrying 10 pitchers, including Happ and Tanaka.Hendriks will likely get the first inning and possibly the second before other pitchers appear for Oakland. The A’s used the opener technique nine times in September and went 4-5 with a 1.86 ERA in those games.Hendriks did it eight times and was 0-1 with a 2.08 ERA in that role. One of those times for the Australia native was against the Yankees on Sept. 4 in Oakland’s 5-1 loss when he threw 11 pitches in the opening inning David Ross Jersey , giving up no runs and no hits.“Part of this was starting Liam, bringing a starter in after that, had mixed results as far as it went,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “Some games were good, some not. Sometimes we tried to extend Liam and tried to get him through a second inning; that didn’t work.“So, there’s been some trial and error with this. But I think the reason that we started looking at this is because we’ve had so many injuries in our rotation, and we’re just trying to do the best possible thing that we think for a particular day.”It is the first time an “opener” has been used in a playoff game, and Hendriks is doing it after being designated for assignment on June 25. Hendriks posted a 7.36 ERA in 13 appearances before getting designated, but he pitched well in Triple-A Nashville and notched a 1.38 ERA in 12 appearances after returning to the majors.“I’m just happy to be a part of it. I’m just happy to be on the team, to be honest,” Hendriks said. “Obviously, it was a trying year regardless of everything else. But it’s one of those things where I’ve had to adapt, I’ve had to overcome some things this year, and I think it’s made me better. It’s definitely humbled me, it’s definitely brought me back down to earth, and it’s definitely brought out that little animosity about everything Steve Cishek Jersey , just trying to go out there and prove that I can do this.”Once Hendriks is finished the A’s will have 10 other pitchers, including veteran starter Edwin Jackson along with relievers Fernando Rodney, Jeurys Familia, Shawn Kelley and closer Blake Treinen, who was 9-2 with 38 saves and an 0.78 ERA.The lineups both pitching staffs will be facing are fairly similar. Giancarlo Stanton, who is in the postseason for the first time, hit 38 homers on a team that led the majors by hitting an all-time record 267 homers. Khris Davis led the majors with 48 homers as Oakland finished third in homers at 227.Unlike the Yankees, Oakland didn’t start quickly. While the Yankees were 45-21 through June 15, the A’s were 34-36 and finished the season 63-29 to end up seven games ahead for the second wild-card spot.“It’s been fantastic,” Melvin said. “I think more so because of the group of guys. It’s just been such a fun group. We had similar results in 2012, where we weren’t expected to do a whole lot. We ended up having a great second half, great last month.”The teams split their six regular-season meetings with the Yankees taking two of three May 11-13 and Oakland taking two of three Sept. 3-5. BOSTON 鈥?Dave Roberts kept his head down and walked with purpose. The Dodgers manager, still in full uniform, weaved through the concourse behind home plate, escorted by an MLB representative toward the press conference room. Normally, managers don't need to deal with the mob of fans after games Drew Smyly Jersey , let alone during the World Series. But Fenway Park opened up the week the Titanic sank and is 106 going on a trillion years old and isn't outfitted with secret tunnels like Staples Center.Several Dodgers fans, stuck in a human traffic jam, unhappy with their Game 1 loss, spotted the skipper and did something most fans never get the opportunity to do: express their displeasure with their team's performance directly to the man in charge."Roberts, you suck!" one Dodgers fan yelled as Roberts scooted past and briskly walked toward the Red Sox clubhouse door, which leads to Fenway's press conference room. Some Red Sox fans smiled.Roberts already never needed to pay for any meal in Boston again, but his managerial decisions in the first two games of the World Series have frozen that status in carbonite for all of the wrong reasons and have put Los Angeles in desperation mode. The puzzling decisions have begun to pile up, and fingers are beginning to point directly at the man at the head of the Dodgers dugout.Los Angeles starter Hyun-Jin Ryu held things together on Wednesday until the fifth inning, when he loaded the bases with two outs, and Roberts faced a choice. Do you bring Ryan Madson, who struggled in Game 1, or someone like Pedro Baez, who overwhelmed the Red Sox lineup Tuesday?Al Bello/Getty ImagesThe third-year Dodgers manager turned to Madson, only to see his reliever walk Steve Pearce on five pitches to tie up the game before allowing a two-RBI single to J.D. Martinez to give the Red Sox a 4-2 lead that Boston would not relinquish鈥攖his, just one night after a Madson wild pitch set up the Red Sox to take the lead in the fifth inning of Game 1. He later gave up a hard RBI single to Rafael Devers to make it 5-3 Red Sox.So far in the World Series, Dodgers starters have failed to make it through the fifth inning."Madson has been our guy for quite some time and he's pitched in some big spots http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-drew-storen-jersey ," Roberts said. "The usage, I wasn't concerned about. He's fresh. He didn't throw too many pitches yesterday. Had a couple days off coming into this series. That part of it was easy and I liked him against Pearce. He's done it time and time again, and the last few times, it hasn't worked out."The questionable pitching changes are already beginning to accumulate. All of this came after a Game 1 in which Roberts decided to take out Baez, who had struck out two Red Sox hitters handily, and bring in lefty Alex Wood to face the left-handed hittingDevers.This despite the fact that Baez has been tougher on lefties (.164/.310/.299) than righties (.246/.291/.380) this season and after Wednesday has not allowed a hit against lefties in 32 consecutive at-bats.In response, Red Sox manager Alex Cora sidestepped, bringing in Eduardo Nunez, who hit a three-run homer that clinched an 8-4 series-opening victory for Boston."Whether they were going to hit Devers with a lead or go to the bench and go with Nunez, I still liked Alex in that spot," Roberts said after Game 1.Roberts' calamitous pitching changes in the first two games have all but buried the Dodgers' chances of winning their first World Series since 1988. The pressure avalanches onto the Dodgers as this series swings over from the frigid New England winds to the Los Angeles sun. And for as much as Roberts has hurt the Dodgers' chances, Cora has bolstered Boston's odds of raising its ninth championship trophy.Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesCora's success in the World Series isn't an anomaly. Throughout the regular season, the first-year manager stuck with his players through slumps, building trust in the process. The ability to build relationships facilitated Cora's flexibility in Games 1 and 2, when he started Devers over Nunez at third base despite precedent suggesting the latter would start against lefties.The move paid off big time in the series opener; despite starting on the bench, Nunez stayed ready and came through with the biggest hit of his career. This after Devers himself had already reached base two of three times and drove in a run."He's the reason we're here Scott Feldman Jersey ," Nunez said. "Every move we make, there's a reason. And it's a good reason every time he makes a move.""He's in everybody's corner from day one," said outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. "He's a great communicator. He's a guy we all gravitate toward. He can get down to our level and be one of the guys, but at the end of the day, we ultimately know he's the leader."The reasoning behind some of Roberts' moves has been much less clear. And now with his team down two games and headed back home, Roberts will have less than 48 hours to figure out where things need to change for the Dodgers to ensure an opportunity to return back to Fenway Park for a Game 6. A lot will need to go right for Los Angeles to lock in that return flight to Logan Airport, and the Dodgers know it."You can find out a lot about yourself when your backs are against the wall," said first baseman David Freese. "That's not necessarily a good saying 'cause teams with their backs up against the wall don't necessarily end up winning. But our backs are up against the wall."A reporter points out to Freese that most teams in the Dodgers' position, down 2-0 in a playoff series after losing the first two games on the road, don't come back. Since 1985, the 2004 Boston Red Sox are the only team to come back to win a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first two games on the road. Freese takes a second to pause to ponder his team's new reality."For sure, but some have, right? Right?" Freese asks. He musters a chuckle. "Correct?"For the Dodgers to have any chance of joining that small list, Freese's manager鈥攚ho surely remembers what it takes from being on that 2004 Red Sox team鈥攚ill have to put an end to his many mistakes.