Wacha like a man: Cardinals 9, Dodgers 0

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Michael Wacha held L.A. to two hits over 7 innings, leading the Cards into the World Series with his second win of the NLCS and third in this postseason (totals 21 IP, one run, 8 hits, 4 walks, 21 strikeouts). St. Louis pitchers allowed just three baserunners, matching the fewest in a series clincher. (The Mets’ Bobby Jones one-hit the Giants in the his third win in the 2000 NLDS.) They faced 29 batters, one off the clincher record set by Atlanta in the 1996 NLCS, game 7.

Wacha is the third-youngest starter to win three games in one postseason, after Fernando Valenzuela (1981) and Jaret Wright (1997), who each made five starts. Wacha could become the youngest with four wins in a postseason, and the 15th overall; none has won five.

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With Carlos Martinez (age 21) pitching the 8th and Trevor Rosenthal (23) the 9th, it’s the first time that three pitchers age 23 or younger appeared for one team in a series clincher. The 1979 Reds used three young pitchers (out of six) in losing the NLCS finale to Pittsburgh. Martinez and Rosenthal also pitched in Wacha’s other two starts, comprising three out of the seven postseason team-games with three age 23 or younger; no team has ever used more, and no other team has used three since the 1991 Braves.

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Two scoreless wins in one series, by a starter:

LDS: None.
LCS: Mike Hampton, 2000 (one shutout, total 16 IP); Steve Avery, 1991 (16.1 IP); Wacha, 2013 (13.2 IP).
WS: 3 shutouts — Christy Mathewson, 1905; 2 shutouts — Bill Dinneen, 1903; Lew Burdette, 1957; Whitey Ford, 1960; Sandy Koufax, 1965; 1 shutout — Lon Warneke, 1935 (total 15 IP); Whitey Ford, 1961 (total 14 IP).

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Starters with at least three wins in a postseason that totaled one run or less:

Mathewson, 1905 (27 IP, no runs, 13 hits, one walk).
Kenny Rogers, 2006 (23 IP, no runs, 9 hits, 7 walks).
Michael Wacha, 2013 (21 IP, one run, 8 hits, 4 walks).

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Wacha’s three postseason wins match his regular-season total. I’ll guess that hasn’t been done before; anyone care to check?

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Before tonight, three of the four biggest shutouts in LCS finales went against the Cardinals:

1996 NLCS, Braves 15, Cards 0: Atlanta wins game 7 at home behind Tom Glavine, knocking out Donovan Osborne with 6 in the 1st.
2012 NLCS, Giants 9, Cards 0: S.F. wins game 7 at home behind Matt Cain, blitzing Kyle Lohse and Joe Kelly with 7 runs in the first 3 innings.
1979 ALCS, Orioles 8, Angels 0: Baltimore wins in Anaheim, taking the series by 3-1 with a CG by Scott McGregor.
2000 NLCS, Mets 7, Cards 0: N.Y. wins game 5 at home, 7-0, with a 3-hitter by Mike Hampton.

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no statistician but

11 years ago

JA:

There are various metaphors to describe the following protest, such as spitting into the wind. However—

To me the World Series is all that counts—or all that counts with regard to the season’s finale. Equating this ever expanding run of pre-WS games to those in the Fall Classic by lumping all post-season statistical results together, well—why not just add the regular season stats in, too, and trivialize the matter completely?

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

nsb, indeed, any discussion of “postseason stats” must deal with the opportunity advantage, especially for players in the wild-card era and players on dynastic teams. I hope no one thinks I meant to put the 3-scoreless-wins achievements of Michael Wacha and Kenny Rogers on the same level of Christy Mathewson’s 3 shutouts in one World Series. Wacha has started 3 of 11 team games so far, while Rogers started 3 of 13. On the other hand, I don’t think Matty’s feat of 3 shutouts in 6 days could be repeated in today’s game; conditions are just too different. So while… Read more »

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

JA: I wasn’t attacking your post particularly, just making an across the board rant about what has quite recently become commonplace, but certainly wasn’t so as late as 1994, if the Thorn and Palmer TOTAL BASEBALL IV is anything to go by—and if my failing memory stills serves me, it was the go-to source at the time. In other words, at least up until the point at which a pre-playoff was inserted prior to the league playoff, owing to the split into three divisions, people generally did not intermix stats from the LCS with the WS. Look at it from… Read more »

oneblankspace

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

The split to 3 divisions was a result of the extra round of playoffs, not the cause. The big debate at the time was whether the Eastern division champion should play the #2 from the East or the West.

(Also, the National League did not like playing a balanced schedule, so they wanted to shift from 2 divisions.)

Editor

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Last time with 3+ starts in a World Series

With 0 CG: 2011 – Chris Carpenter
With 1 CG: 1991 – Jack Morris
With 2 CG: 1975 – Luis Tiant
With 3 CG: 1968 – Mickey Lolich, Bob Gibson

Last time with 3+ starts in an LCS

With 0 CG: 1992 – John Smoltz, Doug Drabek
With 1 CG: 1988 – Orel Hershiser

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

“…today’s teams have to beat out 14 league-mates…”

Before expansion, a team had to beat out (up to) 9 other teams to make the playoffs (WS).

That’s 1 out of 10.
Now, 5 out of 15 make it.
That’s one out of three.

What’s the harder route to the Series?
Beating out nine other teams over 6 months?
Or being in the top 33% and then winning 7 out of 12?

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Voomo, I’m not following you. 1) Before the first expansion, each league had 8 teams. To win the pennant and reach the WS, they had to beat out 7 teams. (The 10-team leagues only existed for 7 to 8 years, between the first and second expansions.) 2) When talking about the path to the WS, the number of teams in the playoffs seems irrelevant. One team in each league reaches the WS, and 14 go home. “What’s the harder route to the Series?” can’t be answered in the abstract. What caliber of team are we talking about? If you could… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

In 1945 Virgil Trucks won 1 game in the WS and had none during the season. He joined the Tigers at the end of the season after being discharged from the armed services and pitched only 5 innings. He pitched a CG victory in game 2. As a returning serviceman he probably got special permission to appear in the WS.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Thanks, Richard!

For starting pitchers with at least 3 wins in a postseason, the fewest career regular-season wins, to that point:

— 4, Michael Wacha, 2013
— 8, Jared Wright, 1997
— 9, Livan Herandez, 1997
— 12, Babe Adams, 1909
— 15, Fernando Valenzuela, 1981

(Not a scientific check. Corrections welcomed!)

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Rawly Eastwick had 3 post-season wins in 1975. At the time he had 5 regular season career wins.

Editor

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Nobody will top Frankie Rodriguez with zero career wins before winning 5 in the 2002 post-season. Of course, all were in relief.

A couple more.
8 – Dave Righetti (1981)
16 – Tim Belcher (1988)

Editor

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Ken Brett in 1967 didn’t have more wins in the post-season than the regular season, but he did have more appearances and allowed more walks than in the regular season.

But, Francisco Rodriguez is the real standout in this regard. Going into the 2002 post-season for the Angels, his career totals were a 0-0 record in 5 appearances and 5.2 IP, all in that season. In the post-season, he went 5-1 in 11 appearances and 18.2 IP.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Tangent: After sampling a smattering of online comments from Cards fans, I want to believe that the whiny “why don’t we ever get any respect?” subset is merely the loudest, not the most representative.

They sure are loud, though.

Editor

Doug

11 years ago

Those same 3 under-23 Cardinal pitchers also were their only pitchers in game 4 of the NLDS, a higher pressure elimination game for the Cardinals.

Those two games by the Cardinal trio are the only times that a team has used 3 pitchers aged 23 and under, and used no other pitchers in the game.

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

No no no Dustin, that’s not how you do it!!! You put both hands up in the air and then tomahawk chop them down as you’re running towards first! Come on man, you’re a Red Sock!

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

First and second, nobody out, down one run; now’s the time to step up and really earn that huge salary in a situation that actually counts Prince. You know, like you decidedly have not been doing up till now….

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Prince did the very best we could hope for: Not hit into a triple play, and keep the inning alive for Victor.

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

…and sure enough, Victor delivers once again. Without him and Peralta, we’d be absolutely sunk in this series (not counting the SPs).

robbs

11 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Is Victor;s “single” a homer w/o the Monster?

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to robbs

robbs, I haven’t seen a replay of V-Mart’s drive, but it didn’t feel like one that would have gone out of most parks. Would have been nice to get the double … but the park is the same for both teams. I was sure glad of the Monster when Bogaerts’s blast was held to a double.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I had to open my big fat mouth. That’s the worst baserunning play I’ve ever seen.

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

FIELDER YOU IDIOT.

God I don’t think I’ll be able to watch the rest of this.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

As far as the Play Index can tell us, that’s the first postseason grand slam on an 0-2 count. There are 17 with unknown counts.

I feel November’s breeze a-blowin’….

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Why is McCarver bloviating about pitch counts, as if he knew that was a reason that Leyland took out Scherzer? Max had a lot of stressful innings, the Monster saved him from a home run to start the inning, and he didn’t finish off Bogaerts from 1-2 (or so said the ump). Look at how the 5th, 6th and 7th had gone for Max. Ellsbury is 6 for 13 against him. I have no knock on pulling Scherzer there. The commentary seems like knee-jerk B.S.

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

FWIW, just twice in 229 career relief outings has Uehara allowed as many as 3 runs, both times exactly 3. One out of 11 in the postseason.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL201009170.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TEX/TEX201110010.shtml

Editor

birtelcom

11 years ago

I’m spotting only two previous World Series that were contested between teams with identical regular season records: 1958 and 1949. Have I missed any? Cards and Red Sox had the top two regular season records in the majors this year, and b-ref’s Simple Rating System gave Boston the top rating and St Louis the second-best, tied with Detroit.

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

If St. Louis wins it will be only the 2nd time that 4 WS winners went
A
B
A
B
(Giants-Cards-Giants-Cards)

The other was 1941-1944
(Yankees-Cardinals)

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Faced with the awful prospect of no baseball for a few days I am compensated by watching an entire play-by-play account of game 6 of the 1952 World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. I believe this is the oldest available such game. The nostalgic person that I am gives me a great feeling to watch this game. And what fantastic memories there are: starting pitchers doing their pre-game warm-ups in foul territory near home plate, organist Gladys Gooding singing the national anthem live, men in the stands wearing suits and ties, Mel Allen and Red… Read more »

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

RC: I didn’t watch the video of the game, but I took a long look at the box score, and it is fascinating for many reasons. In no particular order: Billy Cox (!) was leading off for the Dodgers as he did in 65 regular season games. Jackie R was batting clean-up. George Shuba, having his one shining season as a sometimes starter, was in left field giving Any Pafko a day off. This was the notorious 0-21 Gil Hodges WS. Hank Bauer was almost as bad, 1-18, for the Yankees. Duke Snider hit two solo HRs in the game,… Read more »

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Nice summary, nsb. You know what else was weird in that box score? The attendance for this game, which could have clinched their first-ever WS title, was just over 30,000. They had 4,800 more in game 1, and about 3,200 more for game 7. They had 3 regular-season gates at least 1,000 bigger than game 6. Anyone?

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

If you watch the video, early in the game the camera panned the upper deck in left field to reveal quite a few empty seats. Mel Allen explained that those seats were withheld from advance sales so that there would be tickets available on the day of the game. Unfortunately almost everyone assumed that the game was already a sell-out so those seats remained unsold. Allen even asked watchers who were living in the vicinity of Ebbets Field to come to the park.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Talking about some weird stuff by Dressen, in the bottom of the 7th with 2 out and no one on and the Yankees ahead 2-1, he let Loes bat for himself. Lose then hits a single. With the count 3-1 on Cox, Loes thought the count was 3-2 and takes off with the pitch. The pitch was a strike and Loes ends up stealing second base. Then Cox struck out. Other signs of the times. Hand signals were used to contact the bullpen, batters rubbed dirt onto their hands, swung 2 bats while limbering up for their at bats and… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

According to PI that SB by Loes was the last one by a pitcher in a WS. There was one other one, by Bill Donovan in the 1908 WS.

e pluribus munu

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Thank you, Richard. I’ve been dodging HHS for a couple of days, since the outcomes of the pennant races were not happy ones for me, but this is very nice to encounter on my return. Since my WS viewing didn’t begin till ’54, this will allow me to spend a couple of hours sharing the dismay that my older family members were used to feeling, most having rooted for the Dodgers in ’41, ’47, ’49, ’52, and ’53 (not to mention the razor-sharp pennant losses in ’42, ’46, ’50, and – oh! – ’51). All of which history had been… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to e pluribus munu

You’re welcome epm, glad you liked it. You would like the 5th game of that WS even more. The Dodgers won 6-5 in 11 innings with Carl Erskine going all the way. He gave up 5 runs in the 5th inning but Dressen let him remain in the game. Oisk retired the last 19 batters that he faced. One of those outs was a brilliant catch by Carl Furillo in the bottom of the 11th to rob John Mize of a game-tying homer. It was the second time in that game that Mize was robbed as Andy Pafko caught another… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I made a goof. It was Gene Woodling who was robbed of a HR by Pafko early in the game, not Mize.

e pluribus munu

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Goofs are part of the game, Richard. Thanks!

Author

John Autin

11 years ago

Bill James has a nice summary of the ’52 Series in the Historical Abstract, including Brooklyn’s two HR-saving catches in game 5. It’s in the section on The 1950s, essay titled “The Best World Series of the 1950s,” starting on page 241 in my edition.