A few quick notes, as I try to hold it together….
Until this year, the Tigers had participated in just one postseason game that ended 1-0: the clinching game of the 1984 ALCS. They have three in eight games this year, losing ALDS game 2, and in this ALCS, winning game 1 (Boston’s first 1-0 loss) and losing game 3 (Boston’s third win).
John Lackey is the first Red Sox righty starter to win 1-0 in the postseason. The prior wins were by Bruce Hurt (1986 WS) and Babe Ruth (1918 WS), both in game 1.
Justin Verlander is the first Tigers starter to lose 1-0 in the postseason. His 79 Game Score ties the high for a postseason losing pitcher in regulation, shared by Barry Zito, John Smoltz, Don Newcombe and Miner Brown.
Verlander is the third pitcher with at least two team-lost starts of 7+ innings and 1 run or less in a single postseason. Mike Mussina in the 1997 ALCS took two no-decisions, allowing one run over 7 IP in game 3 (with 15 Ks), and no runs on over 8 IP in game 6 (one hit, 10 Ks), on three days’ rest. Matt Morris in the 2001 NLDS allowed one run in both games 1 and 5, taking a 1-0 loss and a 2-1 no-decision.
Besides Mussina’s ’97 Orioles, only the ’91 Pirates lost two LCS games in which their starter yielded one run or less in 7+ innings. For the World Series, only the ’66 Dodgers and 2001 Diamondbacks had two such losses.
Through three games of this ALCS, five starters have allowed one run or less in 6+ innings. That matches the ALCS high, set in 1997 (out of 6 games), 1990 (4 games) and 1972 (5 games).
Counting the regular season, Verlander has allowed 11 runs in his last 62.2 IP, a 1.58 RA/9. Detroit is 2-7 in those games, with 5 shutouts.
Detroit had five cracks with a runner on third: two outs in the 1st (Victor Martinez flied out), one out in the 5th (Omar Infante whiffed, Andy Dirks bounced out), one out in the 8th (whiffs by Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder). Boston never got a man to third, except on Mike Napoli’s homer. The teams combined went 0-for-11 with RISP, 0-7 by the Tigers.
Home runs that decided a 1-0 postseason game:
| Date | Series | Gm# | Tm | Opp | Batter / Pitcher | Inning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-10-15 | ALCS | 3 | BOS | DET | Mike Napoli / Justin Verlander | T-7th |
| 2001-10-13 | ALDS | 3 | NYY | OAK | Jorge Posada / Barry Zito | T-5th |
| 1997-10-15 | ALCS | 6 | CLE | BAL | Tony Fernandez / Armando Benitez | T-11th |
| 1995-10-28 | WS | 6 | ATL | CLE | David Justice / Jim Poole | B-6th |
| 1986-10-08 | NLCS | 1 | HOU | NYM | Glenn Davis / Dwight Gooden | B-2nd |
| 1983-10-04 | NLCS | 1 | PHI | LAD | Mike Schmidt / Jerry Reuss | T-1st |
| 1974-10-08 | ALCS | 3 | OAK | BAL | Sal Bando / Jim Palmer | T-4th |
| 1966-10-09 | WS | 4 | BAL | LAD | Frank Robinson / Don Drysdale | B-4th |
| 1966-10-08 | WS | 3 | BAL | LAD | Paul Blair / Claude Osteen | B-5th |
| 1949-10-05 | WS | 1 | NYY | BRO | Tommy Henrich / Don Newcombe | B-9th |
| 1923-10-12 | WS | 3 | NYG | NYY | Casey Stengel / Sad Sam Jones | T-7th |
Only the shots by Fernandez and Henrich came later than Napoli’s, which (like Stengel’s) came in the top of the 7th with 1 out.
The Tigers/Red Sox clash is only the 3rd post-season series in which both teams had a 1-0 win.
That was the score for the first two games of the 1949 WS, and it was the score in games 2,5 and 6 of the 1991 NLCS.
Lackey’s last 1-0 win was 2009-07-19, for the Angels. His cleanup hitter was Mike Napoli. But Bobby Abreu hit the winning HR, in the top of the 10th.
Boston’s last 1-0 win in the regular season was 2012-04-28, Jon Lester defeating Jake Peavy (Wednesday’s starter). Just 3 of the 9 in that lineup are still with the team.
Hmm, I learned something today!
Interesting that you mentioned the 1918 World Series. It was Red Sox vs Cubs, and the Chicago games were played at Comiskey Park because it was bigger than Weeghman Park, which was renamed Wrigley Field in 1920.
Babe Ruth threw a six-hitter in that game. Even though they wanted to be in a bigger park, the attendance was only 19,274.
“For the World Series, only the ’66 Dodgers and 2001 Diamondbacks had two such losses” (starter allowing 1 run or less in 7+ innings)
Actually, it was only the ’66 Dodgers who suffered this fate. The 2001 D-Backs lost only game 4 of the WS in the described manner.
Doug, check again — games 4 and 5 of the 2001 WS — the games Kim surrendered late HRs. D-backs lost both, with Schilling going 7 IP on 1 run, and Miguel Batista 7.2 IP and no runs.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/2001_WS.shtml
Sorry, John. I stand corrected. (I was reading D-Back’s game 5 line with a 2-spot in the 5th inning).
Shane Robinson joins a logjam for second spot on the “Fewest Career HR by a Player When Hitting a Post-Season Pinch-Hit HR” list. (trying saying that fast twice).
Robinson’s 5 career taters ties him with Ed Sprague (1992 WS), Bill Bathe (1989 WS) and Chris Burke (2005 NLCS) who all had that same career total when they connected as pinch-hitters. George Vukovich remains safely ensconced in top spot with but a single career HR when he connected for the Phillies in the so-called 1981 NLDS.
The Red Sox have a .133 team batting average, and a 2-1 series lead.
The Cardinals have a .148 team batting average…and a 3-1 series lead. Madness.
Time to put you Magnum PIs (Play Indexers) on the case. Has a victorious team in a seven-game series ever had a lower cumulative average than these two clubs?
Also, the Dodgers relief corps served up the ugly trifecta of a wild pitch, balk and HBP. Are there any matching events for this in a post-season game? Bonus points if there was also a catcher’s interference to complete the grand slam of self-immolation. They also allowed five walks and two singles, but amazingly, none of the above-mentioned baserunners came around to score.
Lowest World Series team BA for a World Series winning team is .186 by the 1918 Red Sox. Their .492 OPS is also the lowest by a WS-winning team.
The A’s won a best-of-five ALCS in 1974 with a .183 BA (but a more reasonable .621 OPS). The Mets won the 1986 NLCS over the Astros (my own personal favorite post-season series ever) with a .189 BA, and a .498 OPS (that BA is a low for an LCS best-of-seven winner, the OPS is the lowest for any LCS winner).
The Braves swept the 1996 LDS over the Dodgers with a .180 BA, but a .664 OPS. The Dodgers won the improvised 1981 post-strike LDS with a .558 OPS. The lowest winning OPS in a regularly scheduled LDS was by the 2010 Phils in their sweep over the Reds with a .574 OPS.
BTW, the Red Sox so far in the ALCS this year has a.450 OPS and the Cardinals in the NLCS so far have a .465 OPS
So of course, both teams blow that up in their next games. I somehow knew that you would have all the answers, birtelcom.
Hmm, I learned something today!
Interesting that you mentioned the 1918 World Series. It was Red Sox vs Cubs, and the Chicago games were played at Comiskey Park because it was bigger than Weeghman Park, which was renamed Wrigley Field in 1920.
Babe Ruth threw a six-hitter in that game. Even though they wanted to be in a bigger park, the attendance was only 19,274.
And in 1915 and 1916 the Red Sox played their WS home games at Braves Field. Not so in 1918.
Here’s a question for you. The wikipedia page on Comiskey Park indicated that the lowest-attended game there was 511 people on 6 May 1971. Here is the list of all White Sox games that season:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHW/1971-schedule-scores.shtml
There are other relatively low-attendance games around that game, but nothing anywhere near 511. I wonder if that’s an error. It was a midweek day game and the weather looked lousy (50s and rainy), so maybe it’s right.
In contrast, here is the 1979 Oakland A’s season:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/1979-schedule-scores.shtml
The game on 17 April had 653 people, which I thought was the modern low-water mark. Other games around that time would imply that the 653 number IS correct.
I mentioned a few days ago that when Andy Pafko debuted at Wrigley Field on 9-24-43 the attendance was 314.
Another mid-week game on a cold, rainy afternoon drew just 413 people to see the last place Yankees at the Stadium on 9-22-66.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196609220.shtml
@11/Disco,
I don’t know how far back the “modern” era goes for you, but I read that the St Louis Browns in the 1930s had some games with attendence under 200. The lowest figure I saw was 154 on June 10th, 1938, but B-R has only sporadic individual game attendence figures till 1938 for the Browns.
The Browns had season attendance figures well under 200k for the entire decade of the 1930s, with a low of 80k in 1935. No wonder it seemed like they were always selling their best players during this period…
I just checked the Browns 1930s attendance against the AL average – it was never close to even half the AL average, and was often 20% – 30%.
The 1979 A’s low figure seems more believable than the Pale Hose, as the A’s had several other games below 1,000 attendance. This was the period when one of Charlie Finley’s main assistants was The Artist Later Known as MC Hammer, all of 13 years old.
More friends and relatives crowds, all from the 1938 season (first year with more than a smattering of attendance figures).
– Cardinals: 95 (Jul 18) for the Phillies
– Athletics: 154 (June 10) and 200 (May 11), both to see the Browns
– Senators: 400 (Sep 6) for the Red Sox
– Indians: 474 (Sep 19) for the As
– Phillies: 500 (Oct 2) for a double-header against the Dodgers
– White Sox: 500 (Jun 22 & Sep 6) for the Sens and Browns
– Reds: 673 (May 9) for the Phillies
One more: in their season-opening series against the Dodgers, the Phillies drew a total of 5,000 for the 3-game set, with the worst crowd (1,000) on opening day. Except for double-headers, the Phillies never drew more than 5,000 at home.
@17/Doug,
“Except for double-headers, the Phillies never drew more than 5,000 at home (in 1938).”
45 wins against 105 losses will do that in 1938.