Hey everyone! Here’s the briefest of playoff previews, with one fun fact from each team. Check them out after the jump:
National League
#1 Los Angeles Dodgers vs. #8 Milwaukee Brewers
The Dodgers won their 8th-straight division title, the third-longest streak in history (1998-2006 Yankees and the 1995 (or 1991) -2005 Atlanta Braves.
The Brewers, by contrast, are making their third consecutive postseason appearance – a team record. (It’s not been a great team history.) Bonus fact: I’m pretty sure the 2020 Brewers join the 2020 Astros as the first postseason teams in MLB history with a record below .500, so that’s something.
#4 San Diego Padres vs. #5 St. Louis Cardinals
The Padres had the best winning percentage in team history this year (.634). They also improved their winning percentage by 185 points – best in team history (previous best was 142 points by the 2004 Padres).
The Cardinals, a perennial playoff team, have a much different history. Speaking of history, here are a couple tidbits: they still have two players from their 2006 World Series Champs team on the roster (Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina), and they predate that season, too (2005 and 2004, respectively). I mention ages because it’s a really interesting roster: less than a quarter of their innings pitched (24.87%) were thrown by pitchers aged 30+ (and it was only three pitchers, and Wainwright threw the majority of those innings); compare this to their position players, where 43.21% of their PAs went to players 30 or older.
#3 Chicago Cubs vs. #6 Miami Marlins
I know a lot of Cubs fans are celebrating a division title and a return to the playoffs after years of declining results. Since winning the World Series in 2016, they lost the NLCS, then lost the Wild Card game, then missed the postseason entirely. Well, here’s another bit of bad news: here are their Pythagorean winning percentages beginning in 2016: .665, .576, .575, .558, .545. The story of decline seems to be a real one. It’s still a heckuva fun roster… but there’s got to be some serious discussion in Chicago this offseason about how sustainable this 2016 team really is.
The Marlins are making the playoffs for the third time in team history. I know this is an obvious bit of trivia, but it needs to be said: they’ve only made the playoffs twice before, and they’ve won two World Series. So that seems a pretty good omen. So does this: their LCS opponents in both of those seasons (Atlanta in 1997 and Chicago in 2003) and their World Series opponents in both seasons (Cleveland in 1997 and New York in 2003) are still in these playoffs. Their Division series opponent both times ’round was the Giants, were were eliminated on the final day of the season.
#2 Atlanta Braves vs. #7 Cincinnati Reds
The last time the Braves made the playoffs three straight years was 2003-2005, the twilight of their dynasty. Their ’90s-00s dynasty is the only team in Braves history with three or more consecutive playoff trips (unless you want to count the ’59 teams tiebreaker series against the Dodgers; but those were technically regular season games. Read more about that season – and particularly that playoff – by clicking here, if you’d like to hear my takes). But that dynasty was renowned for its pitching; the current incarnation of the Braves posted the worst ERA (4.41) of any playoff team in the National League.
The Reds still have Joey Votto. Obviously, he’s just a shell of the player he once was. From 2009-2018, Votto posted a .434 OBP, whereas it’s been only in the .350s the last two seasons. But still, we should be happy for Votto. We’ll see if he can get another postseason win. The Reds have won zero postseason series in Votto’s long career, and in fact are just 2-7 in playoff games with him (that would be the 2010, 2012, and 2013 postseasons). Also, let’s be honest: I’m really hoping that all four NL Central teams win their first-round series, so we end up with an all-NL-Central Division Round.
American League
#1 Tampa Bay Rays vs. #8 Toronto Blue Jays
Not only did the Rays wrap up the top seed in the AL; Kevin Cash now owns the best winning percentage of any manager in team history (.522 to Joe Maddon’s .517). Of course, there have only been five managers in team history, which is pretty impressive, actually. This year’s edition is also the first Rays squad in franchise history to have a winning percentage over .600, though they’ve been in the .590s thrice before.
The Baby Jays gave only 9 PAs all year (0.39%!!!) to a player older than 30 (34-year-old Caleb Joseph). Yet they gave nearly 51% of their innings (50.95%) to pitchers 30 or older.
#4 Cleveland Indians vs. #5 New York Yankees
For the Indians, it’s just about impossible not to mention Shane Bieber. Bieber became the first pitching Triple Crown winner in the Majors (not just one league or the other) since Johan Santana in 2006. He also joins Dwight Gooden (1985), Sandy Koufax (1963, ’65, and ’66), Hal Newhouser (1945), Lefty Grove (1930 and ’31), and Dazzy Vance (1924) as the only pitchers to accomplish that feat in the last 100 years. A club to be proud to join, for sure.
The stat I’ve seen everywhere is that the Yankees are the first team since the ’59 Braves (there they are again) to have both the batting champ (DJ LeMahieu) and the HR champ (Luke Voit), with those two being separate players. Also, lots of people are mentioning LeMahieu becoming the first player ever to win batting titles in both leagues since 1901. But I’d like to point this out: the Yanks are making their fourth-straight playoff appearance. They’ve gone 3+ consecutive seasons with a postseason appearance 10 times in franchise history (1921-23, 1926-28, 1936-39, 1942-44, 1949-53, 1955-58, 1960-64, 1976-78, 1995-2007, and 2009-12). In every single one of those streaks, the Yankees have won at least one World Series. They have yet to win one in the current, four-season streak. Something’s gotta give.
#3 Minnesota Twins vs. #6 Houston Astros
Never before in team history have the Minnesota Twins (even back to their Senators years) posted a winning percentage of .600 or better in consecutive seasons. The closest they came previously was 1969-70 (.599 and .605, respectively). Rocco Baldelli therefore now (obviously) owns the best winning percentage by a manager in team history (.617), topping Billy Martin (.599 in a lone season). Walter Johnson was the previous multi-season best, but that was the Senators. Bill Rigney was the best among multi-season Twins managers (.531). But also this, which can never be said enough: the Twins are 0-16 in their last 16 playoff games. Their last win came in Game One of the 2004 Division Series vs. the Yankees. In fact, since winning the World Series in 1991, the Twins are 6-25 in the postseason. I live in Minnesota and am married to a Twins fan (I’m sure I’ve shared this before, but she was literally born the day the Twins won the ’87 Series), so these facts cause much consternation in my household.
Small victory for the Astros: they have now made the playoffs four consecutive seasons. That has never happened in franchise history. In a weird note, Zack Greinke had a phenomenal FIP (2.80) and a miserable ERA (4.03). The gap of 1.23 is the second-worst of his career, dating back to 2005 when he led the AL with 17 losses for a Royals team that lost over 100 games and his ERA was worse than league-average. This year, it was still better than league-average.
#2 Oakland A’s vs. #7 Chicago White Sox
Oakland’s last three playoff appearances have resulted in losses in the Wild Card game. They look to end that streak this year. They are just a well-rounded team, and I promised myself I’d only write-research for 90 minutes, and I’m running out of time! So that’s the only fact you’re getting.
Chicago ends the longest postseason drought of any of these teams; the last time they made it was 2008. They also posted their best winning percentage this year (.583) since their 2005 championship season. Also, a not-so-fun fact for the White Sox: they finished six games ahead of the Astros, the team seeded right above them; they finished only one game behind the A’s, their first round opponents who get to host the entire series. Only the A’s, Twins, and Rays had a better record than the #7 White Sox, and only the Rays were more than one game better. Huge bummer for the Pale Hose.
Well, that does it! Happy watching everyone! I hope we can have some playoff discussion around here; we always have such insightful commenters! Enjoy the playoffs!
Slight correction from your last comment on the previous post – the 1981 Kansas City Royals were the first sub-.500 playoff team. They went 50-53 over the full season, but won the AL West in the second half of the strike season with a 30-23 record. They were swept in the ALDS (which was a 3 game series at the time, just like these Wild Card series) by the Oakland A’s. The 2005 Padres, with the worst record for a division winner (82-80), were swept by the Cardinals. We shall see if the Brewers or Astros can do better by taking at least one game.
Right you are! I forgot about taking a look at ’81. What makes ’81 such a weird year is that the teams with the best record in the National League (the Cardinals and the Phillies) both missed the playoffs, but the 2nd- and 3rd-place teams got in. The American League was precisely the opposite: the 2nd- and 3rd-place teams both missed the playoffs, while the 1st- and 4th-place teams made it in!
(As a sidenote, I’ve always wondered what it would’ve done for the legacies of the players on the ’81 Reds if they’d made the playoffs, and even maybe the World Series. They were arguably the best franchise of the ’70s, but their legacy seems to go out at the end of that decade. Additionally, how much more legend is added to Tom Seaver’s career if he wins another World Series with another franchise? If George Foster becomes a playoff hero, is he in the Hall of Fame? That team, in particular, interests me, and I think they got cheated.)
When the strike halted play in 1994, the Rangers led the AL West at 52-62 (.456), one game ahead of the A’s.
The division series was not best of three. It was best of 5.
A couple results from yesterday:
-The Astros defeated the Twins 4-1, to extend the Twins’ already-record-breaking postseason losing streak to 17 games. But the game was tied at 1 in the top of the ninth. With two outs, full count, bases loaded and a former MVP (Jose Altuve) up to bat. It’s actually the ideal situation. Sergio Romo walked Altuve to bring in the go-ahead run.
-At this point, the #2 seeded A’s and the #7 seeded White Sox have identical records, including playoffs (36-25). Personally, I don’t like the way they’ve seeded these playoffs. I would rather that they just seeded teams by record. But what can you do?
-It’s pretty rough to have written so effusively about Shane Bieber above, and then to have him go out and lay an egg: 4.2 innings, 7 runs (all earned). His postseason ERA (13.50) is over eight times higher than his 1.63 in the regular season. Of course it’s just one game; of course his regular season numbers probably would’ve reverted to the mean a little bit, given a whole year. On the other hand Gerrit Cole was basically the guy the Yankees paid his September 5th start, Cole was for; earlier this year, it looked like the Yankees had bought a lemon. Through his September 5th start, Cole had a 3.63 ERA (which was actually improved from his previous start… but came after a game in which he allowed 4 unearned runs). He was sitting at a 4-3 record (the team was 1-1 in his two no-decisions). But in his final three starts, Cole allowed only two runs in 21 innings. Given a full season, he probably would’ve evened out some of those midseason bumps.
-I have nothing to say about Rays-Jays Game 1. So I’ll give this little tidbit: Bo Bichette (22), Cavan Biggio (25), and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. (21) have now made their respective postseason debuts significantly younger than their fathers Dante (31), Craig (31), and Vlad, Sr. (29). Of course, that’s purely a result of the expanded playoff; I’m not operating under any false illusions about that. But I do think it’s interesting.
I’ll add another eye-catching factoid for the Rays. In a 60 game season, Tampa had 12 pitchers record saves, tying the MLB full season record. Those twelve pitchers totaled 23 saves, with a high of 6 for Nick Anderson. And, in the Rays’ first post-season game, Pete Fairbanks made it a baker’s dozen with his first save of the year.
Two of the playoff teams (Reds and A’s) did not have a batter with a qualified .250 BA, a major league first for post-season teams.
There have now been 6 such teams in the last 10 years, after only 7 teams over the preceding 110 seasons.
Three of the playoff teams (Rays, Blue Jays, Braves) had more IP by their relievers than their starters. Only 9 such seasons, all of them since 2018, when the Rays introduced the use of the “opener”. Third straight year for Tampa, and second straight for Toronto.
Before this season, there had been only 3 post-season starts with 12+ K’s and zero BB. But, in first two days of this post-season, add two more, incl. Trevor Bauer on Wed with the first such game without allowing a run or without a decision. More post-season records followed in this game, incl:
Sorry Doom to see the Twins go down again, extending their record post-season losing streak to 18 games, and tying the Indians with losses in a record 9 straight elimination games (though Cleveland could extend that record to 10 games if they don’t even up their series with the Yankees).
Losing 9 straight post-season series still leaves the Twins one series shy of the record of 10, held by the Braves and Cubs, with Chicago’s streak extending over 89 seasons (1910-1998) and Atlanta’s streak still active (for at least one more day).
Ugh! Two games in a row the Twins load the bases in the first with a chance to deliver a blow to an Astros team that limped into the playoffs with seemingly little desire to win, and… nothing.
Hoping Doom’s Brewers fare better than his adopted Twins. Heck, they’ve already scored twice (something the Minnesota club couldn’t seem to grasp) against the Dodgers, and it’s only the sixth inning.
So, the Indians did extend their streak of lost elimination games to 10, sparing the Twins that notoriety.
The Yankee/Indian game, at 4 hours 50 minutes, is the longest 9 inning game in the regular or post-season. 211 pitches by the Indians, and 388 for both teams, both fall just short of the 9 inning post-season records of 215 and 402.
Twelve walks allowed by the Indians matches the post-season record for any game, and sets a new post-season record for a 9 inning game. As noted in the telecast, 19 walks by both teams also ties a post-season record for a 9 inning game. With the Indian loss, teams allowing 10+ walks in a 9 inning post-season game are now 1-15, with the lone win recorded by the Blue Jays in game 1 of the 1993 ALCS.
Giving up 10+ walks in a 9-inning game doesn’t seem to be a winning formula. For that matter, issuing seven walks wouldn’t seem to be a highly successful path, either. But apparently it’s fine as long as it’s fewer than your opponent issues.
Just a note on Bieber. In addition to his triple crown season noted by Doom, Bieber’s 281 ERA+ (as measured by B-R) is second only to Pedro’s 291 mark in the latter’s sublime (.737 WHIP) 2000 season. Bieber’s 1.63 ERA and 2.07 FIP are both slightly better than Pedro’s 2000 marks, albeit in a lower run scoring environment.
Trevor Bauer was right behind Bieber with a 276 ERA+, eclipsing Greg Maddux’s NL record 271 established in the truncated 1994 season.
It seems ironic that Cleveland’s season ended due to a record-setting inability to throw strikes in light of the accomplishments enumerated here of Bieber and Bauer, not to mention the recent successes of Kluber, Clevinger, Carrasco, and others pitchers developed in their system.
In last night’s (9/30) Yankees-Indians game the Yankees tied a post-season record for fewest hits with 10+ runs scored. They had 10 runs scored on just 8 hits, tying 5 other teams.
Recap of 9/30 games:
As Doug and Tuna noted in a comment above, September 30th was not a fun day in the Doom household.
-The Twins lost their 18th-straight postseason game. The had chances both times, but scrape by with just two runs in two games. There were 16 Wild Card games since the founding of the Wild Card play-in game (2012-2019). In eight of those games, a team failed to score 2 runs. The Twins now have failed to score two runs twice in the same year.
-Likewise, the Brewers were disappointing. Having pushed the Dodgers to the limit in 2018 (actually outscoring the Dodgers in that 7-game affair – by one run… but still!) and having come one out shy of knocking out the Nationals before they even got on a roll last year, a lot of us Brewers fans were hoping for another exciting postseason. Admittedly, that’s tough when Orlando Arcia is your power hitter… but Vogelbach and Yelich both had extra-base hits, which can hopefully continue. The Brewers actually outhit the Dodgers 7-6 yesterday, but A.) didn’t walk as much, and B.) failed to have a leadoff hit all game. Spotting the defense an out before you get a baserunner all nine innings is not, as it turns out, a winning strategy.
-The Bronx Bombers… wow. I don’t know if the nickname has ever been more apt. The team with the American League’s best regular season ERA (Cleveland – 3.29) has allowed 22 runs in 18 innings. Not only that, the Yankees have scored in more innings (11) than those in which they’ve failed to score (7). As it turns out, Cleveland, if you want to win a game, walking twelve batters is probably not a good idea. For those who didn’t watch, the Indians were rallying in the bottom of the eighth. Cesar Hernandez knocked in two runs with no outs, which means Jose Ramirez and Carlos Santana next with a 9-8 lead – a pretty good position to be in. Unfortunately, a strikeout and a 5-4-3 double play ended things for that inning. The Yanks brought across two in the ninth, and the Indians had the odd situation of striking out three times in the ninth… plus a groundout (one was a passed ball). So the series goes out with the tying run on base for Cleveland.
-The other completed AL series is the Tampa-Toronto series, Rays-Jays. I love that the locations are alliterative and the nicknames rhyme; you can’t go wrong no matter what you call this one! Anyway, the top two hitters for the Jays (Biggio and Bichette) went 1-14 with a walk in the two games. Not great.
-The only AL series with any interest is the A’s-ChiSox series, which is tied at a game apiece. By the end of the second inning, the A’s were already up 4-0, and that was pretty much that. A’s starter Chris Bassitt went seven strong and allowed only a single run. That’s the kind of start that every team dreams of in the postseason.
-The four NL Central teams combined to score 10 runs, which isn’t great; but it’s especially not great when you know that the Cardinals scored 7. The Redbirds got hits from every player who batted except #9 hitter Harrison Bader, and 5 of those 8 had extra-base hits. The Padres 4 runs were above the median yesterday, actually; alas, they (like the Indians) had the misfortune of playing a team that had more than they did. St. Louis starter Kwang Hyun Kim allowed runs in the first three innings, and after a two-out walk in the fourth, the Cardinals decided, even with a 6-3 lead, they’d seen enough. The Padres threatened in the 6th, scoring an unearned run when Tommy Pham scored on a double play ball. (Pham had been caught stealing third, but an error by Tommy Edman kept the inning alive.) Tatis couldn’t capitalize with runners on 1st and 2nd when he came to bat, and the inning ended. He had a chance to redeem himself in the eighth, again coming up with two outs and two on, but this time it was 2nd and 3rd. He grounded out to short. No shade on Tatis – every superstar fails more often than he succeeds, and in that lineup, that’s definitely the guy you’d want up. But baseball is a cruel game, and it doesn’t always work out.
-The Marlins have now won 3 straight postseason games against the Cubs, dating back to the Bartman game. Another fun fact: the Cubs have held leads in each of those games. This time, the Marlins’ hero was Corey Dickerson, whose 1-out, 3-run homer in the top of the 7th swung the game in the Marlins’ favor. The Cubs failed to score the remainder of the game, and it ended 5-1.
-The game of the day to me, though, was not the bananas Yankees-Indians game, though that was fun. Rather, it was the pitching duel between Max Fried of Atlanta and future Milwaukee Brewers ace Trevor Bauer (a guy can dream, can’t he?!) of Cincinnati. The Reds led off the game with two straight singles… but wouldn’t again see two runners on simultaneously until the bottom of the 7th, when Aristides Aquino was caught stealing home on a bizarre double-rundown play you should really watch if you haven’t seen it already, scored 2-4-3-2-5 (I think I got that right). That may’ve actually been the key play of the game. Bauer pitched a 7.2 inning, 2-hit, 0-walk (though he did hit Freddie Freeman), 12-strikeout gem. But Freeman wound up the hero, lining a walkoff single to left in the thirteenth. A true classic game. FYI, since I’ve been picking on the Twins, let’s point out that the Reds postseason history has not exactly been littered with success, as of late. They are 2-12 since sweeping the 1990 World Series, and that doesn’t include game 163 losses in 1999, 2000, and 2005. At least the Twins won game 163 in 2009. That’s sort of a playoff win. The Reds’ only postseason wins were games 1 & 2 in 2012 against the eventual World Champion San Francisco Giants. The Reds then lost 3 straight in a best-of-five.
Congrats to the Braves on snapping their record streak of 10 straight series losses. Only the second time a team has been shut out in the first two games of a series; the other was the Braves on the short end against the Dodgers in a 2018 NLDS series. Teams have been shut out in the last two games of a series 7 other times, most recently in the the other 2018 NLDS series when the Brewers dusted the Rockies.
The year’s Indians club, albeit in the weird 60 game season, set a new AL record for ERA+ with a mark of 140, eclipsing the 1926 A’s (139) and…the 2017 Indians (138). So was there ANY doubt that they’d give up 19 runs in two games? Not for this guy, there wasn’t.
Also a reminder that the 2017 Indians were a fantastic team. Their pythag was 108-54. That 138 ERA+ went along with a 104 OPS+, which was only trailing the Yankees and Astros. This year’s team had an abysmal 86 OPS+ – only the basement dwelling Rangers at 76 were worse. The 2020 Indians were not, really, a very good team. They were a great rotation with a shaky but talented bullpen and horrible hitting, with really only 3 or 4 guys who ever contributed with the bat.
The 2017 team would be a complete footnote if not for their 22 game winning streak, which should live on for quite a long time.
And yes, it’s getting to be unbearable watching them drop elimination game after elimination game. At least this time I wasn’t AT the game, unlike 2007 and 2013 and 2017 and 2018. (I was in Japan for the 2016 WS)
Cursed, sooner or later, there will be a “next year”
CC, I figured you’d weigh in here. I just want to talk for a sec about the ’17 Indians. You may think they’re no more than a footnote (relatively speaking, anyway), but I have them lumped together in my head with a few teams of recent vintage (2011 Phillies, 2005 Cardinals, 2019 Dodgers, 2002 Diamondbacks – you’ll note that they’re mostly NL teams due to frame of reference) where they were just in the World Series, but then they have an even better team, but that better team fails to advance as far. Most of these teams (maybe all?) lost in the Division Round; I didn’t have to look this up, because they stick out to me so much. This happens, of course, in sports. But it makes those teams a special kind of memorable, I think. Bittersweet, but memorable.
Also, since you mentioned being in Japan during the 2016 World Series, I think I’ll take this moment to mention that 2016 had probably the best set of championships of my lifetime. Beginning in March, Villanova wins the National Championship on a buzzer-beater over UNC; the NBA Finals features the greatest player of all-time dragging a team to a seven-game victory over the team with the greatest regular-season record of all-time (weird note about that Finals: it was an abysmal series, with a phenomenal ending; the first six games were all blowouts, but the two teams were tied in total points entering game 7, which was an absolute nailbiter and featured the best play I’ve ever seen on a basketball court: LeBron James’s block of Andre Iguodala); the World Series was a seven-gamer that featured three one-run games, slugfests, defensive battles, and an extra-inning game 7, and the guarantee that one of the two longest title droughts in MLB would disappear; then (and I realize I’m squeaking into 2017, but it was the 2016 season, so I’m counting it), you have the epic Patriots comeback from 25 points down to win; and finally, you have a comeback victory for a one-score win by Clemson to win the college football national championship over the team that might have been crowned the greatest college team of all-time had it won in the end, the wire-to-wire #1 Alabama team, and redeeming the previous year’s result. That was an absolutely incredible year. My son was born that March; if he ends up a sports fan, I’ll hope that he can appreciate that he was born in maybe the most exciting sports championship year of all-time.
Stanley Cup was a bit of a snoozer though.
True, but to further my point: the WNBA Finals went the full 5, including a final game decided by one point. And it was an Olympic year, which means like 5 times as many sports stories as in a normal year.
For personal enjoyment, I would rank hockey behind, not just the sports I named in the post above and the WNBA, but also: track & field, tennis, golf, and then other Olympic sports. So I didn’t really think of it, nor was it relevant to my personal enjoyment of sports that year. But that’s just my personal bias speaking. Plus… if someone can find a year wherein all those things were as interesting, and the Stanley Cup Finals were good, I’ll retract my statement about 2016(-17) being the best sports year. 🙂
Notes from Friday’s games.
This season was really a season of 3 “leagues”, East, West and Central, with no “inter-league” play until the post-season. Now that the Wild Card round has completed, here’s how those leagues stack up.
East – 5 qualified, 4 advance to next round
West – 4 qualified, 4 advance to next round
Central – 7 qualified, 0 advance to next round
Astros draw first blood in division series, thanks to a spotless performance from their bullpen. Four relievers each pitched 1+ IP with no runs or hits allowed. For second straight game (after Padres on Friday), that ties the post-season record for most such pitchers in a team game.
The Yankees have now scored 31 runs in three postseason games. That’s a lot. Of course, they’ve also gone from 12 to 10 to 9, so that’s probably not a trend line they want to follow too long.
Gerrit Cole posted a quality start: six innings, 3 runs; equal numbers of baserunners (6 H + 2 BB) and strikeouts (8). It’s just what you need to give your team a chance… and if your team scores 10 runs a game, it’s significantly more than you need from a start.
With 1 run in 2 abysmal losses to the Marlins, who are fast approaching the level of detestation currently held by the Cardinals & the Mets, are my beloved Cubs becoming the New Braves? We get to the playoffs every year, and stink out the joint once we get year?
It might be painful to see the Cubs turn into the New Braves, John S., but take solace in the fact the they haven’t transformed into the New Twins… yet.
Just one recap from yesterday’s games:
So, through 5, the Padres were no-hitting the Dodgers. Did you realize that? That’s pretty amazing. Of course, they’d allowed 10 baserunners – 8 walks, a hit-by-pitch, and an error. They also allowed a run in what was then a tie game. Of course, the wheels came off in a four-run 6th in which the Dodgers took a commanding lead. The Dodgers needed 5 pitchers to get through the game… but the Padres needed 9, and that tells you about all you need to know.
If you haven’t see it, here’s the situation:
Dodgers are leading 4-3 in the top of the 7th. The Padres have a runner on second and – who else – Fernando Tatis, Jr. up to bat. If you haven’t see what happened, you simply have to check out this play.
Also, trying this for the first time. If you want the BIGGEST plays from yesterday’s games, check out this highlight reel, prepared by yours truly. It’s less than 10 minutes long, and you’ll get most of the info you need!
The Yankees/Rays game 5 was the 9th post-season game in which neither team recorded more than 3 hits, but the first time for an elimination game. It was also just the 3rd post-season game with both teams scoring and R=HR for both teams, but again the first time in an elimination game.
A note about recently deceased Whitey Ford. Among searchable pitchers Ford holds the record for most IP in a season without yielding a stolen base with 283 IP in 1961. The baseball-reference Stathead shows Hal Newhouser as the record holder with 331 IP in 1945 but that is in error. Ford has 3 other seasons of 0 SB with 200+ IP.