Key ALCS pitchers providing relief

— -- KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It's a common baseball refrain that elite starting pitching dominates in the postseason and power pitchers dominate most of all. That helps explain the glowing reviews for Oakland general manager Billy Beane when he traded for Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester in July and the euphoria emanating from Detroit when David Price joined Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in a made-for-October rotation.

Now that the  Tigers and Athletics have been eliminated, the focus in the American League playoffs has shifted. Starting pitchers aren't hanging around very long, and the relievers are doing the heavy lifting.

In the first two games of the AL Championship Series,  Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost squeezed 10? innings out of James Shields and Yordano Ventura and received 8? innings out of his bullpen. His  Baltimore Orioles counterpart, Buck Showalter, would have been happy with that breakdown. Orioles starters Chris Tillman and Bud Norris have combined to throw 8? innings, while Showalter has divvied up 10? frames among his bullpen contingent.