MINNEAPOLIS — Twins reliever Sergio Romo entered Friday’s game in the eighth inning. The Kansas City Royals trailed, 11-9. Here was Romo, attempting to set up his team for a win, something he had done so often in his career. Well, except for a quick blip in 2018 when he, after having pitched 588 games as a reliever, started for the Tampa Bay Rays.



The Rays did not expect Romo to go far in the game. That was not the goal. They viewed him as an opener, someone who would pitch the first inning or two to limit the number of times the true “starter,” who would enter after Romo, would have to face the top of the lineup.



“I wasn’t afraid of it, and what allowed me to buy into it was them saying, ‘Can you just do what you do really well, but in the first?’ I thought, ‘OK, that’s fun.’”



By now, of course, the opener role in baseball has become the fad diet of sorts. It’s the paleo for the...