The third time through the order
Hitters perform markedly better the third time they face a starter in the same game. It is one of the most robust effects in baseball and it drives modern bullpen management.
Familiarity accumulates within a game. By the third look a hitter has seen the pitcher's arsenal, timing and sequencing that day, and the advantage shifts measurably.
The size of the effect varies by pitcher. Those with deep arsenals hold up better across a lineup than those relying on two pitches, which is part of what separates a genuine ace.
That is also the expensive part. A bullpen game skips this entirely, which is why it is often not the weakness the pricing implies — every reliever faces the lineup once, at their best.
What to do with it. When a bullpen game is announced, check whether the total moved up on the news, and ask whether it should have.
The archive
What the published price did in MLB
2,496 games in MLB that are over and carried a price when we wrote them up, between March 26, 2026 and October 29, 2026. Each count sits beside what it is out of, and the share is the one divided by the other.
| What | How often | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| The shorter price won | 1,395 | 2,457 | 56.8% |
| The favourite covered the handicap | 1,033 | 2,496 | 41.4% |
| The total went over | 1,191 | 2,496 | 47.7% |
| The home side won | 1,305 | 2,496 | 52.3% |
- Points in a game, on average
- 8.84
- Winning margin, on average
- 3.52
How wide the games were
Over 3,372 finished games in MLB with a score — a margin needs no price, so this sample is wider than the one above.
- Half were decided by this or less
- 3
- One in ten by this or more
- 7
- The widest
- 22
How they ended
Over 3,339 finished games in MLB whose result line says how it ended — the feed's own one-line verdict, not a reading of the play.
| What | How often | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Went past regulation | 246 | 3,339 | 7.4% |
| Called before the end | 9 | 3,339 | 0.3% |
137 games landed exactly on the number — the handicap or the total — so they are in the counts they are out of and in neither result.
The prices counted here are DraftKings', as they stood when we last wrote each game up — one snapshot per game, near kick-off for almost all of them, and never a closing line. So this says what the published line did, not how it moved on the way there.
A season that happened. Nothing here predicts the next game, and none of it is advice.
Counted November 6, 2026.
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