With one blip, pitching has dominated both LCS series. How much so?

The 15 total runs scored in games 1-4 of the NLCS? New low water mark.

13 total runs in games 1-3 of the ALCS? Never had less, and equaled only in Oakland’s 1970s dynasty years.

More after the jump.

Not only is this year’s NLCS the first with so few runs in games 1-4, it’s also only the second NLCS with neither team scoring more than 4 runs in any of those games. That happened first in the 1999 NLCS between the Braves and Mets when the four pitching matchups were Yoshii/Maddux, Rogers/Millwood, Leiter/Glavine and Reed/Smoltz.

For the ALCS, you have to go back to the 1972 and 1974 series to find only 13 total runs scored in games 1-3. Like this year’s series, those two each had two shutouts in their first 3 games. In 1972, it was Blue Moon Odom for the As and Joe Coleman for the Tigers doing the honors. In 1974, Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue frustrated the Orioles who were held scoreless for 30 consecutive innings, from the 6th inning of game 1 to the 8th inning of game 4.

This year’s NLCS has also had two shutouts in its first 3 games. As with the ALCS, that has happened in only two previous NLCS series, in 1974 and 2006. Don Sutton and Bruce Kison (with relief from Ramon Hernandez) cooled off the hitters in the 1974 series, while Tom Glavine and Jeff Suppan (both with help from their bullpens) were the 2006 stars.

For similar World Series starts, the 1969 series had only 13 runs in its first 3 games, and 16 for the first four tilts. The Reds and As in 1972 had only 9 and 14 total runs through the first 3 and 4 games of their series, with neither team scoring more than 3 runs in any of those games. The Phillies and Orioles mustered only 13 runs in games 1-3 in 1983. In the 4 game sweeps in the 1963 and 1966 series, there were only 16 and 15 runs scored, respectively, with the series losers (the Yankees and Dodgers) both held to only 4 total runs.

Going way back, Brooklyn was involved in several low-scoring series starts, with 10 total runs through games 1-3 against Cleveland in 1920, 13 against the Yankees in 1941, and 9 also against the Yankees in 1949. The Phillies and Yankees also had just 9 runs through 3 games in 1950, and the Red Sox and Cardinals had only 12 in 1946.

But, the prize for the lowest scoring start to a live ball World Series goes to the Braves and Indians in 1948 with 8 runs through 3 games, and 11 runs for four, with both teams scoring 2 runs or less in 3 of those games. Save for the 1947 series, there were two shutouts in the first 3 games of each World Series from 1945 to 1949.