Post-Season Cornucopia

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Four post-season games today, after two yesterday, and the weekend’s just beginning. Here’s your chance to comment on the autumn harvest-time activities. A few tidbits to start you off:

–So far as I can tell, no team has ever won three post-season extra-inning games in a row before. Here’s your chance, KC.

–Until the Tigers did it last night, no AL team in 2014 had hit three homers in a game in which they scored only three runs.

–The Orioles franchise has now had, after the early game today, five games in the post-season in which their starter has produced a game score of less than 35. The O’s are now 4-1 in those five games.

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birtelcom

10 years ago

Three (or more) post-season extra-inning games in a row:
–The Pirates lost the last game of the 1975 NLCS to the Reds in 10 innings and then the next time they were in the post-season, again against the Reds, won the first two games of the 1979 NLCS, both in extra innings.
–The last four of the five games in the 1980 NLCS between the Phillies and Astros were all extra-inning games. Houston won the first two and the Phils the last two.

Editor

Doug

10 years ago

The Royals are the fourth team to win consecutive 11+ inning games, following these teams.

Rk		Strk Start	End	Games	W	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Opp
1	BOS	2004-10-17	2004-10-18	2	2	26.0	24	8	8	15	23	2	2.77	NYY
2	NYM	1986-10-14	1986-10-15	2	2	28.0	20	7	7	5	15	1	2.25	HOU
3	BAL	1969-10-04	1969-10-05	2	2	23.0	7	3	2	10	23	1	0.78	MIN

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2014.

Editor

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

And now the Royals are the first with 3 such wins consecutively.

Tonight’s game was apparently the first AL post-season game with two rookie starters. There was just such an NL post-season game only last year, with Julio Teheran opposing Hyun-jin Ryu in game 3 of the NLDS.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

KCR-LAA game 1 was the third postseason extra-inning game with no more than 4 hits by either team. Hunter Strickland seems to be the first to earn a Hold despite 2 HRs. (SFG-WSN G1) Delmon Young is the 10th pinch-hitter to drive in 3 runs in his PH at-bat, and may have the best WPA of that group. (Currently held by J.T. Snow’s 2-out, tying 3-run HR in the 9th in 2000; dunno if a one-out go-ahead in the 8th would measure up.) Chris Tillman’s start — 2 HRs, 2 runs in 5 IP — led me to find this:… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

During the Cardinals’ 7th, “The Princess Bride” happened to be on another channel.

“Inconceivable!”

Author

birtelcom

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Don Mattingly, you guessed wrong.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Ah, but it seems both cups were poisoned.

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

If only Kershaw had the “I am not left handed” trick up his sleeve.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

RJ takes the trick!

oneblankspace

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

Darryl Kile was not left handed. He pitched with his left arm in high school to save his right arm for football.

Luis Gomez

10 years ago

What an at bat by Matt Carpenter against Kershaw. Not even Cardinals fans thought they would have scored 8 runs against the Dodgers´ ace.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

What an at-bat is right! After the third 2-strike foul, I had a crazy vision of Mattingly coming back out with the hook. It would have shattered the Twitterverse — and maybe cost him his job if the RP didn’t get the out — but you had to sense Carpenter was locked in there.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Kershaw: 10 Ks, no walks, 8 runs.

No other postseason pitcher with 10+ Ks yielded 8 runs. Randy Johnson had the old mark, 7 runs and 11 Ks in 8.1 IP (’99 NLCS).

No other postseason pitcher yielding 8 runs had more than 6 Ks.

10 Ks and no walks? The prior high in runs was 3, by Deacon Philippe and Hiroki Kuroda. Even 9 Ks and no walks had a high of 3 runs; 7 Ks and no walks had a high of 5 runs.

ReliefMan

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

There have been 12 “disaster starts” of 6 or more IP this regular season; none of them had gone longer than 6.1. Kershaw waved off Mattingly once, and in so doing, managed to tack 4 outs onto the yearly high in this category.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

A.J. Ellis has the fourth 4-hit game by a postseason 8th hitter — first since 1921 for the NL.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Dodgers (16 for 40) are second team to bat .400 in a postseason loss. The Bucs did it in ’79 WS game 4 (17 for 39), as the O’s took a 3-1 Series lead.

JasonZ

10 years ago

Iocane Powder.

It’s colorless, odorless, tasteless.

dissolves instantly in most liquids.

And is among the most deadly poisons known to mankind.

Before tonight, Clayton Kershaw was 40-2 when the Dodgers score 6 or more.

After a night like tonight, Dodger fans hope that in addition to that 40-2, the last several years were also spent developing an immunity to Iocane Powder.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Out of 10 prior postseason games where both starters allowed 6+ runs, two had one starter yielding 8 runs (none more).

— The 1970 ALCS opener matched two 24-game winners. The O’s strafed that year’s Cy Young winner, Jim Perry, with a 7-run 4th, including a slam by Mike Cuellar, the reigning CYA. (That was the only postseason slam by a pitcher … until Dave McNally did it 10 days later. None since.)

— 1932 WS opener, Guy Bush gave it up to the Yanks, and Red Ruffing went the distance with 10 Ks.

oneblankspace

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

and Wednesday saw the first postseason grand slam by a shortstop.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

The nutty thing about what happened to Kershaw is, of course, that he’d retired 16 in a row after Grichuk’s solo shot. At the time, I was pre-mourning that the one-sided game might deprive us of a full-length masterpiece, while mentally noting that Kershaw might become the third postseason winner to allow just one baserunner. (Um, no.)

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

After watching Terrance Gore’s latest, absurdly easy pinch-steal, I finally took a look at his minor-league stats: 330 games, 168 steals, 17 CS — 91%.

Comparing minor-league stats per 650 PAs:

— Billy Hamilton, 113 SB, 24 CS (82%)
— Terrance Gore, 88 SB, 9 CS (91%)

Anyway … jeepers, he’s fast!

Editor

Doug

10 years ago

Some other post-season records when a starter posts a sub-35 game score.
– Cubs 0-17
– Indians 1-16
– Tigers 1-16
– Braves 2-20
– Giants 4-24
– Yankees 12-48
– LA Dodgers 3-22
– BRO Dodgers 3-7

Best record other than the Orioles (min. 10 games) – Mets at 4-9, .308

birtelcom

10 years ago

As the post-season began, what were the chances that the Royals’ next three post-season games would be extra-inning wins? Historically, prior to 2014, about one in ten post-season games have been extra-inning games: 143 extra-innings games of 1,406 total post-season tilts. A particular team’s chances of winning an extra-inning game are about 50-50, so the chances of a specific game both going to extras and being won by a particular game is about one in twenty. The chances of that happening in three particular games in a row is about one in 20 to the third power, or about one… Read more »

birtelcom

10 years ago

Eric Hosmer now has two games in which his net Win Probability Added (WPA) contribution for the game has been over 50% (.500).

Most Career Post-Season Games by a Position Player with WPA for the game over .5:
3, by Alex Rodriguez
2, by Eric Hosmer, Miguel Cabrera, Raul Ibanez and Brian Jordan

Editor

Bryan O'Connor

10 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

To Alex Rodriguez, the clutchiest postseason player ever!

Author

birtelcom

10 years ago

Royals batters over the four games of the post-season so far have a collective slash line of .304 OBP/.367 SLG/.670 OPS, after a regular season slash line of .314 OBP/,376 SLG/.690 OPS. Averaging six runs a game in the post-season after averaging four runs a game in the regular season.

Editor

Bryan O'Connor

10 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Sure, KC was averaging 6 runs/game in the postseason after three games, but they only averaged 4.5 in the first 9 innings of those games. Even counting extra innings, those 6 runs per game are only 5.14 per nine innings.