Notes from Games 1 and 2 of the World Series

With the first two games of the 2015 World Series in the books, here are some interesting facts from those contests:

Game 1

  • Alcides Escobar hit first inside-the-park home run in the World Series in 86 years. It was on a first pitch to lead off the first inning. So, how many others have smacked a lead-off first-pitch inside-the-park home run, including the regular season? There’s only one other such event in recorded history, since 1938; Tim Raines did it against the Padres’ Chris Welsh on May 7th, 1981.
  • The game lasted 14 innings, tying the longest record for a World Series game, along with game 2 of the 1916 series and game 3 of the 2005 series. First of which featured another first inning inside-the-park 4-bagger, though not leading off, hit by Hi Myers off of Babe Ruth, who tossed all 14 innings for a complete game win.
  • The Royals’ pitching struck out a combined fifteen Mets hitters. This is tied for the second-most single game mark in World Series history, behind only when Bob Gibson famously punched out seventeen Tigers in game one of the 1968 series.
Rk Date Series Gm# Tm Opp Rslt IP H R ER BB SO
1 1968-10-02 WS 1 STL DET W 4-0 9.0 5 0 0 1 17
2 2015-10-27 WS 1 KCR NYM W 5-4 14.0 11 4 3 3 15
3 1985-10-24 WS 5 STL KCR L 1-6 9.0 11 6 5 4 15
4 1973-10-14 WS 2 NYM OAK W 10-7 12.0 13 7 7 7 15
5 1963-10-02 WS 1 LAD NYY W 5-2 9.0 6 2 2 3 15
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/30/2015.
  • Matt Harvey struck out an uncharacteristic two in six innings, tied for the fewest single-game mark in his career (June 10th, 2015) .
  • Wilmer Flores became the first player to reach on an error while bringing in the go-ahead run in the 8th inning or later of a World Series game since… when Mookie Wilson made Vin Scully yell “Behind the bag!” I kid you not.
  • Alex Gordon’s game-tying home run was the first to put team on top or tie a game in the 9th inning or later in the World Series since David Freese’s walk-off blast in 2011 game 6, exactly four years preceding this game.

 

Game 2

  • Johnny Cueto set many records with his outstanding two-hit complete game victory. To mention a few…
    • The Dominican right-hander became the first pitcher in twenty years to toss a two-hitter (or better) in the World Series, since Greg Maddux in 1995 game 1.
    • He also joined Roger Clemens in 2000 as the only pitchers to threw more than one eight-plus IP, two or fewer hits outings in a single postseason.
  • Like his colleague Harvey in game 1, Jacob deGrom struck out just two Royals, and that was the fewest single-game record in his big league career, along with 3 other outings.
  • Daniel Murphy has cooled off a bit. Not only has he gone homerless in first 2 games of the World Series, but he’s also struck out twice in each of them. Murphy has had one other multi-K streak in his entire career, spanning over three games from July 2nd to 5th, 2014.
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brp
brp
9 years ago

Murphy got bit by the SI cover jinx, apparently. (Unlikely; he still drew 2 walks against Cueto, which was impressive given how well he was throwing).

Brent
Brent
9 years ago
Reply to  brp

With regional covers does that even apply anymore? I am sure some Royal was on a Regional cover too.

brp
brp
9 years ago
Reply to  Brent

Weird… I live in the Midwest. Unsure why I’d get a NYM cover instead of KCR…

Brent
Brent
9 years ago

So I have heard the fact about the length of Game 1 being tied for the longest ever a couple times now and I have to protest. The ROAD team won in 2005 Game 3, whereas the HOME team won here. This gave was 2 outs shorter than that one.

Doug
Editor
9 years ago

Welcome aboard, Kazuto.

In addition to Tim Raines’ first inning, first pitch, leadoff IPHR, there are 27 other first inning leadoff IPHR’s in P-I’s event database for which the count is not known. Six of those 27 were hit by Royals, 5 of them (by Freddie Patek, Jim Wohlford, Frank White and two by Willie Wilson) in Kauffman Stadium in a 9 year period (1975-83). Wilson also had one at Yankee Stadium.

Brent
Brent
9 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Doug, Royals stadium/Kauffman Stadium had a penchant for inside the parkers in the 70s/80s, in part because of the artificial turf. But the other factor was one you could see in Game 1 on a Zobrist double that Granderson played perfectly. The corners at Kauffman are rounded in such a fashion that a ball hit into the corner does not bounce back out at all, instead it runs along the fence back toward right center (or left center) field. An outfielder who chases a ball into the corner is going to find himself chasing it along the warning track while… Read more »

Doug
Editor
9 years ago

Escobar’s walk-off run in game 1 is only the third in the WS by a player reaching base on an error. Other two were by Ken Griffey in game 2 in 1976, and the series-winning run by Craig Counsell in game 7 in 1997.