League Championship Series Preview |

Feel free to comment throughout these series below!

American League: Tampa Bay vs. Houston

The Rays enter the series having been outscored in the Division Series by the Yankees, 24-21. But that doesn’t matter when you win the most games. Particularly impressive was the Rays’ ability to silence the New York bats in the decisive Game 5. The Rays allowed only three hits and four walks against one of the most potent lineups in the game. The question becomes, can their pitchers continue to silence the defending AL Champion Astros?

Speaking of whom: the Astros are appearing in their 4th-straight ALCS. They join the 2011-2014 Cardinals, 1998-2001 Yankees, 1991-1999 Atlanta Braves (that’s 8 seasons not 9, due to the 1994 work stoppage), and 1971-1975 Oakland A’s as the only teams to make 4 or more consecutive League Championship Series. Though the Astros finished the regular season with a losing record (29-31), they now have a winning record (34-32) including the postseason. They will need to win at least 2 games to finish .500 or better on the year.

National League: Los Angeles vs. Atlanta

Something’s gotta give: it’s a matchup of two undefeated postseason teams. The teams with the top two seeds in the National League (and the best two winning percentages in the NL, postseason inclusive) face off in an NLCS with a lot of potentially-exciting storylines.

For the Braves, they enter with a fabulous offense – second in the Majors in runs scored (and second by only a single run to the Dodgers). Four of their key players finished the season with a .900 or better OPS:
Travis d’Arnaud: .321/.386/.533
Ronald Acuna, Jr.: .250/.406/.581
Marcell Ozuna: .338/.431/.636
Freddie Freeman: .341/.462/.640
I don’t know how often a team has had two players bat .330/.430/.630, but I’m going to guess that what Freeman and Ozuna did this year is pretty special.
Add in ace pitcher Max Fried – he of the 7-0 record and 2.25 ERA – and the Braves look pretty tough to beat.

However, that’s before you’ve looked at the Dodgers. The Dodgers led the NL in runs scored and (fewest) runs allowed; in fact, they nearly led the Majors in both, but Cleveland managed to allow four runs fewer.
Anyway, the Dodgers outscored their opponents by over two runs per game (2.27 per game, to be specific). That’s similar to the 1927 Yankees (2.44 per game), and even better than the 1906 Cubs (2.13), 2001 Mariners (1.85), 1998 Yankees (1.90), and anyone else I could think to check. Including postseason, they’re now winning games at a .738 clip – that’s a 119-win pace over 162. This is, arguably, one of the great teams of all-time. We’ll see, of course. But as for individuals, Mookie Betts looks decently likely to become the second-ever player to win MVP awards in both leagues. Clayton Kershaw, who is supposed to fade in the postseason, has been lights-out in two postseason starts: 14 innings, 3 R.

So, folks, stay tuned for what will hopefully be two outstanding postseason series. And stay tuned to the comments for conversation and analysis of the games!

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Richard Chester

4 years ago

Teams with 2 players batting .330/.430/.630: 1927, 1930 and 1931 Yankees (Ruth and Gehrig); 2001 Rockies (Helton and Walker).

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Dr. Doom

Reply to Richard Chester

I just knew it! I thought about checking manually, but that seemed like such a bear. Thanks for looking it up, Richard! So those are your qualifying pairs in history: Ruth/Gehrig, Helton/Walker, and Freeman/Ozuna!

Man, has this been a rough year for Hall of Fame players. RIP to Joe Morgan, the author of the GWRBI in Game 7 of what may still be the greatest World Series of all time (’75); two-time MVP (and should’ve beat out teammate Rose in ’73, as well). In the NBJHBA, Bill James came up with a sort of “intelligence” score that measure all the things that players do to with their brains: take walks, have a high SB%… little “percentage” type things. Joe Morgan had the highest score of any player by that measure. Here are the players… Read more »

Doug

Reply to Dr. Doom

It is actually the worst year ever for HOF deaths, with a total of 6 players passing (so far), and 5 of them (in my view) inner circle players. 1972 also had 6 players pass but the last (Clemente) was, of course, not yet a HOFer, and the others (Traynor, Bancroft, Wheat, Hartnett, Jackie Robinson) were mostly not inner circle types.

Reply to Doug

519.4 position player WAR among the dead and 354.8 pitching WAR; we’re not yet 5/6 of the way through the year. Jim Wynn and Tony Fernandez, with over 100 WAR between the two of them, weren’t Hall of Famers, but are also notable losses this year (Lou Brock, Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, and Joe Morgan are the Hall of Famers). My personal favorite among those who have passed away this year is Angel Echevarria. He is a player whom no one has any reason to remember; he had a pretty unremarkable career. But in 2000, I… Read more »

The undefeated postseason dream continues for the Braves. The Braves’ Max Fried and three innings of bullpen work masterfully four-hit the Dodgers, with a Kike Hernandez homer in the 5th being the Dodgers’ only scoring chance. No Dodger reached base twice in the course of the game. If the Braves continue to put up performances like that, the Dodgers won’t have a chance. Of course, these are the 2020 Dodgers we’re talking about, and it seems pretty unlikely to me that this kind of a performance would continue for the rest of the series.

The Rays are living right. Bring in their closer for the 9th and he gives up three hits and two walks, yet allows only one run. That’s the sort of good fortune you have when it’s your year (though I still can’t quite see the Rays going all the way).

KDS

I think you missed the best team all time at RS-RA. The 1939 Yankees were almost +2.7 net runs/game. Looking at their stats compared to their opponents, what impressed me the most was not their hitting, as great as it was, or their very good pitching, but their defense was out of this world. The team defense stat you want to start with is DER, the % of balls in play that are successfully fielded for (an) out(s). The Yanks were at .730, with no other team at .700. With roughly 5000 balls in play per team season, their advantage,… Read more »

Reply to KDS

The other team since 1901 with a Run Differential per game better than the Dodgers is the 1902 Pirates at 2.38 per game. Their .739 (102-36) winning percentage is second only to the 1906 Cubs.

Marcell Ozuna’s 5-3-4-4 box score line in game 4 is unique in the post-season in a 5 PA game. Gary Sheffield had the same box score line in 6 PA in game 3 of the 2004 ALCS.

Last edited 4 years ago by Doug

The Braves’ Jacob Webb pitched one inning of game 5, allowing 3 ER, his first earned runs allowed of the regular or post-season. Webb’s career 1.06 ERA for the regular season is second lowest over the first two seasons of a career among relievers with zero starts and 40+ IP for those seasons combined.

2020 joins 2003 & 2004 as the only seasons in which both the ALCS and NLCS went 7 games. (1972 & 1973 also both went the limit, but those were best of 5.)

2020 World Series |

[…] posted this in the comments of the last thread, but this year was the fifth time in history the two LCS series have both gone the distance, […]