The Nationals have 89 wins going into tonight’s game against the Braves.  The most wins any second wild-card in the NL can reach after 162 games is now 92 wins.  So Washington needs just four more wins to ensure at least a wild-card game post-season spot.

The Nats in the playoffs would mean that, barring any late injury, Bryce Harper will become the eleventh teenager to appear in an MLB post-season game. Harper turns 20 on October 16, which according to the National League schedule will be a couple of games into the NLCS.  A listing of the ten kids who Bryce Harper is seeking to join as teenage post-season participants is after the jump.

(1) The first teenager to make it to the post-season was shortstop Travis Jackson, a future Hall-of-Famer, who made the final out of Game 2 of the 1923 World Series as pinch-hitter for the Giants. Jackson had been a starting infielder during the ’23 season at age 19 for the Giants, who were the reigning dynasty of baseball. Jackson had spent much of the season capably filling in for injured Giants stars, but during the Series, Travis was back on the bench until that final out.

(2) The following season, the Giants had another teenage future of Hall of Fame infielder in the World Series, third baseman Freddie Lindstrom. Lindstrom is still the only 18-year-old to play in a post-season game. He started at third base and served as the leadoff man for the Giants in all seven games of the 1924 World Series, which ended in the 12th inning of Game Seven on a bad hop bounce past Lindstrom. That gave Washington D.C. its only World Championship to date.

(3) Phil Cavarretta, whose career for the Cubs ended up lasting nearly 2,000 games, was the starting first baseman for Chicago throughout the 1935 World Series, just a few months past his 19th birthday.

(4) In 1951, the 19-year-old Mickey Mantle led off for the Yankees and started in right field, until he badly injured his knee in Game 2 when he stumbled after being called off a fly ball by center fielder Joe DiMaggio (playing the last few games of his career).

(5) In the 1955 World Series, the bonus baby Tom Carroll (out of Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn and Notre Dame) pinch-ran twice for Eddie Robinson of the Yankees. Carroll ended up with only 31 PAs in his big-league career.

(6) Willie Crawford is not one of the more famous players the Dodgers have had, but he was a significant contributor to the franchise. Only five men have played more games for the Dodger franchise at the corner outfield spots than Crawford (those five: Zach Wheat, Carl Furillo, Dusty Baker, Dixie Walker and now Andre Ethier). Crawford pinch-hit twice in the 1965 Series, just after his 19th birthday, including a single in Game 1 off of Mudcat Grant.

(7) Long before he was known as George Brett’s brother, Ken Brett was a successful major league pitcher (and when he came to bat, a major-league quality hitter, too). In September 1967, Brett turned 19 years old, made his major league debut with the Red Sox in the 160th game of the year, in the midst of one of the great pennant races ever, and then was added to the World Series roster, replacing another young pitcher named Sparky Lyle who was sidelined with a sore arm. Brett pitched an inning each in Games 4 and 7 with Boson already well behind Bob Gibson and the Cardinals in each game.

(8) Bert Blyleven was both a great young pitcher and a great old pitcher. He was already a solid part of the (loaded) Twins starting rotation at 19 years old during the 1970 regular season. In the ALCS that season, Bert didn’t get a start as the Twins were blitzed by a great Orioles team but did get into the third and final game in relief. The four Twins pitchers who appeared in that game saw a lot of major league action over their full careers: Jim Kaat (25 seasons in the majors), Blyleven (22 seasons), Jim Perry (17 seasons) and Tom Hall (10 seasons).

(9) That same 1970 season saw another 19-year old pitching regularly in the majors — Don Gullett for the Reds. Gullett was a valuable relief pitcher that year for Cincinnati, and appeared in five post-season games for those Reds that year. Gullett is one of a very few major leaguers ever to play for multiple World Championship winning clubs in both the NL and the AL. He played for the ’77 and ’78 Yanks, as well as the ’70 and ’75 Reds. However, he did not actually pitch in the ’78 Series, or indeed ever pitch in the majors again after his arm gave out in July of ’78.

(10) Given the subsequent arc of his career, I have to wonder whether Andruw Jones was really a teenager when he put on a show in the 1996 World Series, capping 14 post-season games that season at the listed age of 19. It’s not unheard of, but it’s certainly unusual for a player of Andruw’s quality to peak at the age of 23 or so. But at least for now he is in the record books as the player with the most post-season games as a teenager. With Bryce Harper’s 20th birthday coming soon, that record is likely to continue to be Andruw’s for quite a while to come.