Don't Call It A Comeback

In a tale of two League Championship Series, one had a minimal and short-lived attempt at a comeback, while the other had more than enough comebacks-- both within games and within the series-- to make up for it.


I want to read about the ALCS first.


Get Your Kicks On Route 66
(Which ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, for you youngsters.)

Like the traffic to get to Dodger Stadium, the National League Championship Series moved very slowly at first, with Game 1 being a fairly ho-hum 5-2 affair in which we approached peak #bullpenning. Jose Quintana and Clayton Kershaw were both pulled after five innings, less than 90 pitches, in a 2-2 tie game, with Kershaw on seven days' rest and Quintana having thrown only 12 pitches in Game 5 of the Division Series two days prior. Kershaw's two runs did come on a homer by Albert Almora, and combined with the four taters he allowed to the Diamondbacks, he became the first pitcher in Dodgers history to serve up five homers in one postseason.

Yasiel Puig joined a fine list of Dodgers luminaries with his two hits and two runs driven in. It was already his third such game this postseason (out of four the Dodgers had played); Dodgers to post that line three times include Duke Snider, Dusty Baker, Davey Lopes, Adrian Gonzalez, and Juan Uribe. Kenley Jansen nailed down a four-out save by striking out all four batters he faced, and in so doing, became (incredibly) only the second pitcher in postseason history to record a save of 4+ outs where every out was a K. Brian Wilson of the Giants also did it in an NLCS Game 1, seven years ago against the Phillies.

Game 2 looked a lot like Game 1, with Addison Russell finally opening the scoring with a leadoff homer in the 5th and then the Dodgers answering on an insignificant Justin Turner single in their half. Stuck on 1-1 for three more innings, it was Turner's last at-bat of the night that would make headlines. Facing "reliever" John Lackey, who managed to get neither a loss nor a blown save because the first run didn't belong to him, Turner launched a 416-foot blast to straightaway center for the second walkoff home run in Dodgers postseason history. You may have heard of the first, 29 years earlier to the day. (Turner and Kirk Gibson also both made their major-league debuts on September 8, though 30 years apart and not 29.)

Turner was thus credited with all four RBIs in the 4-1 win; he and Ron Cey (1978 WS) are the only Dodgers to drive in every run (four or more) in a postseason win. Lackey, meanwhile, gave up just the second walkoff homer of his career; as a starter, he's usually not out there in a position to take a complete-game loss in the 9th inning. But on May 25, 2008, he had finished eight innings on only 79 pitches, and was sent back out to get burned by Carlos Quentin as the White Sox walked off 3-2. It was also just the second time in Lackey's career that he failed to record an out; on May 16, 2009, making his season debut after suffering a forearm strain in spring training, he threw his first pitch behind Ian Kinsler, then hit him with the second one and was ejected.

For Game 3, the only thing that changed was the backdrop; even with the wind blowing out at Wrigley, the Cubs offense sputtered its way to only one run, that on a solo shot by Kyle Schwarber. That came in the 1st inning and provided a brief lead before Andre Ethier and Chris Taylor answered with home runs the next two innings. Taylor added an RBI triple in the 5th to become the sixth Dodger with a three-bagger and a four-bagger in the same postseason game. Ethier did it himself in 2009, along with Mike Marshall (1988), Pedro Guerrero (1981), Davey Lopes (1978), and Steve Garvey (also 1978).

The game, and possibly the Cubs' series, could be epitomized in the image of Carl Edwards issuing a four-pitch walk to Yu Darvish-- yes, the Dodgers' pitcher-- for a 4-1 lead in the 6th. Thanks to all those years in the American League, it was only Darvish's second career RBI (he homered in an interleague game last year), and the first bases-loaded walk issued to a pitcher in a postseason game since "The Burt Hooton Game" in 1977, when the Dodgers pitcher gave up three consecutive bases-loaded walks against the Phillies, one of which was to starter Larry Christenson.

The final score of 6-1 gave the Cubs their third straight loss by at least three runs; the only other time where that happened in the first three games of a postseason series was the 1910 fall classic against the Athletics. The Cubs eked out a win in Game 4 of that series but then lost in 5. (Wait for it.)

Speaking of eking out a win in Game 4, the Cubs opened Wednesday's game with a pair of (of course) solo homers in a bizarrely-sequenced 2nd inning. Rizzo struck out swinging. Contreras homered. Russell struck out swinging. Baez homered. Jay struck out swinging. "KS-HR-KS-HR-KS". It was only the second inning in postseason history where exactly five batters came to the plate, three struck out, and two homered, and the other one didn't alternate. The Cardinals did it against the Cubs two years ago in the Division Series; their homers were back-to-back jacks by Kolten Wong and Randal Grichuk.

Cody Bellinger got one of those runs back with a solo homer in the 3rd, and Baez countered that with yet another solo homer in the 5th. Only five Cubs have ever had a multi-homer game in the postseason, but Baez is just the second player-- for any team-- to go deep twice when facing elimination by the Dodgers. Yogi Berra hit them in his first two at-bats against Don Newcombe (and was then intentionally walked twice) to propel the Yankees to a 9-0 shutout in Game 7 of the 1956 World Series, taking the title back from Brooklyn's lone win in '55.

Jake Arrieta was finally lifted in the 7th after striking out nine, but also allowing five walks, a hit batter, and throwing a wild pitch; only Kerry Wood (1998) and Bob Anderson (1958) had posted that line as Cubs in the live-ball era. Even without the WP and HBP, Wood was also the last Cubs pitcher-- regular or postseason-- to have 9 K, 5 BB, and get a win; that happened in another playoff game, the opener of their 2003 NLDS at Atlanta.

Wade Davis got a 6-out save despite allowing (what else?) another solo homer to Justin Turner in the 8th. Davis also threw two innings in the final game of the Division Series at Washington; he and Mariano Rivera (2001) are the only pitchers to record multiple 6-out saves when facing elimination in the same postseason. And if you've been counting along, you see there were five home runs in the game and the final score was 3-2. Game 4 was only the second contest in postseason history where both teams scored (this eliminates the 1-0 types) and every run was on a solo homer. The other only had three taters; the Phillies beat the Orioles 2-1 in the opener of the 1983 World Series.

Game 5 was a Quintana/Kershaw rematch, but on this night there was never a doubt. Four straight hits to start the 3rd knocked Quintana out of the game, and Enrique Hernandez had already mashed two home runs-- including a grand slam off Q's replacement, Hector Rondon-- before Kershaw even gave up a hit. Quintana, who of course was acquired mid-season from the White Sox, had a 7-run, 4-out game for the South Siders back in September 2012; by giving up 6 runs on 6 outs Thursday, he became just the third pitcher ever to have such a start (6+ ER on ≤ 6 outs) for both Chicago teams. Jason Beré (1995 and 2001) and Steve Trout (1979 and 1984) also share that distinction.

That hit that Kershaw finally gave up was a Kris Bryant homer, and of course, yet again it was a solo shot. That gave the Cubs four consecutive games where they scored in every game but all the runs came on solo homers. That's the first such streak in franchise history (to 1876), and the Cubs are only the second team to have four such games in one postseason. The 1983 Phillies also pulled it off, though not in four consecutive games.

As for all those solo shots, the NLCS had 13 of them in its five games, tying the postseason record for the first five games of any series (longer series have gotten to as many as 17). The short porch at Yankee Stadiums both old and new were the backdrop for many of the others; that record is shared with their 2009 World Series win over Philadelphia, and their 1995 Division Series against the Mariners.

Hernandez's grand slam already made him the first player in Dodgers postseason history to go deep twice with one of them being a slam. Good enough, right? In the 9th inning he came up one last time and did it again, this time with Yasiel Puig on first base. That made Hernandez the first player in postseason history (any team) with a 3-HR, 7-RBI game, and the fifth to go yard three times in a series-clincher. The rest of that list is Adrian Beltre (2011 ALDS), Adam Kennedy (2002 ALCS), Reggie Jackson (1977 WS, the 40th anniversary of which was the day before), and of course Babe Ruth (1928).

Speaking of Beltre, his three-homer game in 2011 was later followed by Albert Pujols going deep thrice against the Rangers in the World Series. Combine Hernandez's game Thursday with Jose Altuve's three-homer game to open the Division Series, and those are the only two postseasons ever to have multiple three-homer games.

The 11-1 final was the sixth time in the World Series era (1903) that a team posted a double-digit win to clinch a spot in the championship. Beltre's 2011 Rangers, the 1996 Braves (with a 15-0 beatdown of the Cardinals), and the 1974 Dodgers all did it in the current "playoff" format, while two other teams won their pennant by virtue of a 10-run win in the regular season. Those were the 1931 Athletics and the very first World Series participant, the 1903 Red Sox (then known as the Americans to distinguish from the NL's Braves).



If the Cubs had won, we could have gone with "Maddon said knock you out!" As it was, he managed to become the first person ever ejected from two postseason games in the same year. Not Bobby Cox, not Earl Weaver, not Lasorda, nobody. Intermission!



Houston, We Have A Pennant

Meanwhile, over in the American League, the Astros-- who tied for the major-league lead by scoring in double digits 23 times this year-- relapsed into "AL West" mode against the Yankees. They scrounged up just six hits, all singles, in Game 1, with half of those by Jose Altuve... and somehow managed to win behind Dallas Keuchel's seven scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts.

Altuve also had a pair of three-hit games in the Division Series against Boston, becoming the first Astro with three such games in one postseason. Craig Biggio is the only other one to have three total, but his were split between two seasons. As with all things "postseason Astros", it's a fairly small sample size, so in a similar vein, it's not surprising that Keuchel was just the third Astros pitcher ever to reach double digits in strikeouts in a postseason game. Mike Scott (14 in Game 1) and Nolan Ryan (12 in Game 5) both did it in the 1986 NLCS against the Mets. That also made the Yankees, who had at least 10 whiffs in all five games of their Division Series with the Indians, the first offense in postseason history to strike out 10 times in six straight postseason games.

Ken Giles was brought on with 1 out in the 8th, and hung on for a 2-1 victory despite giving up a solo homer to Greg Bird. Bird, of course, hit a solo homer for the Yankees' 1-0 win in Game 3 against Cleveland; he is just the third player to accomplish that feat (solo homer is team's only run) twice in the same postseason. Pedro Alvarez of the Pirates did it twice in their 2013 NLDS loss to the Cardinals, and then Matt Holliday went on to do it for the Cardinals in their World Series loss to the Red Sox.

Giles also came into ALDS Game 4 with a two-run lead but gave up a home run to Rafael Devers. Whether he really gave it up, versus it being a George Springer misplay off the Green Monster, is another argument, but it's in the boxscore, and it makes Giles the first pitcher ever to record two saves in the same postseason despite giving up a home run in each of them. (This includes "imputed" saves before they became official in 1969.)

We presume Justin Verlander was watching Keuchel's performance in Game 1 and, in classic Verlander fashion, said hold my beer. In Game 2 JV topped Keuchel with 11 strikeouts in seven innings... and then became the first starter this postseason to reemerge for the 8th. And then the 9th. He finished with 13 strikeouts to also join our Scott/Ryan list above, but there was one little problem: It was a 1-1 tie game. If you guessed that the last postseason starter to still be on the mound at any point in the 10th inning was Jack Morris in 1991, you'd be right. Granted, Verlander was sitting on 124 pitches, so it didn't seem likely, but fortunately Carlos Correa took care of that for us.

Correa's double down the right-field line resulted in a 2-1 walkoff on what is being termed "Altuve's Mad Dash" to beat Aaron Judge's throw to the plate. It was the first walkoff double in Astros postseason history, and combined with his solo homer in the 4th, he was the first Houstonian to have two extra-base hits and drive in both runs in a 2-0 or 2-1 win since Lance Berkman hit a pair of solo shots against the Pirates on July 8, 2010.

The walkoff also cemented Verlander's complete game, the Astros' first with 13+ strikeouts since Wade Miller threw a two-hitter against the Cubs on May 30, 2003. And only three other pitchers have ever thrown a 13-K CG against the Yankees in a postseason game: HOF'er Bob Gibson in 1964, HOF'er Sandy Koufax in 1963, and 12-year Dodger great (but not HOF'er) Carl Erskine in 1953. The 13 whiffs also extended the Yankees' streak of double digits to seven straight games, now their longest in the live-ball era (regular or postseason).

And if that score looks familiar, it's because Games 1 and 2 both ended 2-1 in the Astros' favor. Stop us if you've heard this before, because the Astros also won Games 1 and 2 of the Division Series by identical 8-2 scores over Boston. Obviously this isn't possible before 1969, but it's the first postseason where two different series have had that Games 1-2 phenomenon at all, much less to have it done by the same team.

They say there's no place like home, and the Yankees were certainly glad to return to the Bronx for Games 3 through 5. The first contest was over early when Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge battered Houston starter Charlie Morton for seven runs in the first four innings. Both players clobbered three-run homers, just the fourth time in Yankees postseason history that they'd hit a pair of three- or four-run homers in the same game. Chuck Knoblauch and Tino Martinez did it to open the 1998 World Series against San Diego with a 9-6 victory; the other pairs are Lou Piniella and Graig Nettles in 1981, and Tony Lazzeri and Bill Dickey in 1936. Morton, for his part, became the first Astros pitcher ever to give up seven earned runs in a postseason game, but Collin McHugh also became the first Houstonian to throw four hitless innings of relief in any road game since Jim Clancy did so at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on May 4, 1991.

For a while it seemed like the most memorable moment of Game 4 would be Aaron Judge's 7-minute baserunning escapade. Instead it would be a bullpen meltdown that started with Judge's solo homer to lead off the 7th and a decision to pull starter Lance McCullers. Which backfired as the Yankees scored five runs off Chris Devenski, Joe Musgrove, and our pal Ken Giles (who at least didn't give up a homer this time). Houston had been 75-2 this season when leading by multiple runs after seven innings, and Gary Sanchez's go-ahead double in the 8th was just the second such hit for the Yankees all season. The other... was by Gary Sanchez to beat the White Sox on June 27. Alex Rodriguez, Tino Martinez, Thurman Munson, and Charlie Keller are the only other Yankees to have a go-ahead double that late in a postseason game.

The homer by Judge was only the second hit allowed by McCullers in the game, while Yankees starter Sonny Gray was pulled after five innings and only one hit. It was only the fifth time in postseason history that both starters allowed ≤ two hits but were gone in 6.0 innings or less. Of the others, one was that 2009 ALDS game suspended by rain in the 2nd; one had the starters combine for 12 walks; and two others were before the designated hitter and the starters got pinch-hit for in the 5th or 6th to try and jump-start the offense.

You can argue whether Game 5 was a masterful pitching performance by Masahiro Tanaka, or another sputtering performance by the Astros offense, but the outcome was almost never in doubt as the Yankees swung the "comeback" meter the other direction with a 5-0 shutout and a three-game sweep in the Bronx. It was the Astros' largest shutout loss in a postseason game (again, small sample size), and by yet again collecting only four hits, they became the second team in postseason history to have that few in three straight games and lose all of them. The 1971 Orioles managed that in Games 3 through 5 of their World Series loss to Pittsburgh. The Astros had only done it against the same opponent once before in their history, April 28-30, 1992, versus the Mets. Tanaka, who also threw seven scoreless innings with three hits and seven strikeouts in Game 3 against the Indians, joined Randy Johnson (2001), Roger Clemens (2000), and Kevin Brown (1998) as the only pitchers with two such starts in one postseason.

As mentioned, it was now the Astros' turn to need a comeback to avoid the "reverse sweep", and they had the advantage of Minute Maid Park and Justin Verlander again in Game 6. MMP appeared to be where the Astros left their bats instead of taking them to New York, and even then it took a few innings until Brian McCann's "ground-rule" double and Jose Altuve's two-run single put Houston up 3-0. In the first 49 innings of the series, it was only the third time the Astros had multiple hits in a frame; they didn't do it at all in New York. Verlander, meanwhile, scattered five singles and escaped a two-on jam in the 7th thanks to George Springer's leaping grab at the wall (a wall which was moved in this season thanks to the removal of Tal's Hill).

Combined with Game 2, it was the second time this series that Verlander had gone seven innings, allowed no more than one run, and struck out at least eight. The most recent pitchers to do that twice in a series were, naturally, Justin Verlander in 2013 and Justin Verlander in 2012, both with the Tigers. Obviously they play more rounds now, but he's the first pitcher in postseason history to have seven total such starts, topping Josh Beckett's six for the Red Sox and Marlins.

A deciding Game 7 really wasn't assured, however, until the Yankees brought David Robertson in to start the 8th. D-Rob faced four batters and gave up hits to all of them before being pulled; the last one finally scored on a sacrifice fly. It was the first time in his career that Robertson faced four batters and got none of them out, and bizarrely he was the first Yankee reliever to give up four runs in a postseason game since... David Robertson in the 2010 ALCS against Texas. He of course went to the White Sox and came back in the meantime.

Every Game 7 is a "tension convention" as the kids say, but Saturday especially so when the teams traded zeroes for the first 3 innings. It was the longest scoreless Game 7 (so, LCS or World Series) since the 2001 finale between the Yankees and Diamondbacks, and Charlie Morton became just the third starter ever to throw 5+ scoreless innings and allow ≤ 2 hits in a winner-take-all game. The aforementioned Justin Verlander did it in that 2013 ALDS, as did Noah Syndergaard in last year's Wild Card tilt.

Meanwhile, Evan Gattis broke things open with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the 4th, joining Luis Valbuena (2015 ALDS) and Craig Biggio (2004 NLCS) as the only Astros to hit a go-ahead homer in a Game 5 or 7 (not Wild Card). The Astros lost those other two games, but that would not be the story this time as they tacked on another solo homer from Jose Altuve in the 5th. He became the first Astros hitter ever to homer in back-to-back potential elimination games.

CC Sabathia was knocked out shortly after Gattis's homer, having failed to record a strikeout. Combined with the two games where Luis Severino did it, the Yankees became the first team since the 1984 Padres to have three 0-K starts; that San Diego squad was ahead of its time at #bullpenning and none of those starters went more than two innings. Two other Yankees teams pulled it off, in the 1960 and 1947 World Series which both went seven games, as did the 1976 Royals.

When Brian McCann added two more runs in the 5th, the countdown was on and the ball belonged to Lance McCullers. Brett Gardner greeted him with a single, but that would be the only hit he allowed, retiring 12 of the last 14 Yankees (Todd Frazier walked), half of those on strikeouts. McCullers thus became the first player in postseason history to record a six-strikeout save (any length), and the third ever to post a four-inning save in a clinching win. Madison Bumgarner, of course, had his memorable five-inning game in the 2014 World Series, and Vida Blue did it for the Athletics in Game 5 of the 1972 ALCS at Detroit. No Astros pitcher had recorded any four-inning save since Ramon Garcia did it against the Cardinals on April 5, 1997.

I read this part first and want to go back to the NLCS now.


So Now What?

Now we wait. And in the ongoing argument of "down time to reset" versus "momentum carrying over", there's one factoid we've been studying for years now. In the last eight seasons-- and 10 of the last 11-- the team which won its pennant first, and thus had the longer time to sit around and wait before starting the World Series, lost that championship. Advantage Houston? We shall see.

Long Division

So much to recap, so little space. Actually that's not true. It's the Internet! Join us on a 10-day, 19-game whirlwind tour of the Division Series (and those pesky Wild Card games too). We'll be nice and give you jumps to each series, but we've had so much fun #bullpenning this postseason that you know you want to read them all.

Jump to a series:
ALWC...NLWC...LAD/ARI...HOU/BOS...CHC/WSH...NYY/CLE


That Escalated Quickly

Five pitches into the postseason, while we were (really) still adjusting the volume to resolve the delay between radio and television, former New Britain Rock Cat Brian Dozier put the Twins up 1-0 in the AL Wild Card game with a leadoff home run.

Not only was it the first leadoff homer in Twins/Senators postseason history, it was the first time ever that the first batter of the entire postseason went yard. Coco Crisp of the Athletics came close in 2012, homering as the first batter of the first Division Series game, but alas, that was the year MLB added the Wild Card games which had been played the day before.

Three batters later, former New Britain Rock Cat Eddie Rosario made it 3-0, marking the first time the Twins/Senators franchise had ever hit two 1st-inning bombs in the same postseason game. It was their fifth such game this year, one of just five teams to do it that many times (the Orioles led MLB with seven), and the team's most since 1964. The last time Minnesota had two 1st-inning taters against the Yankees, in any game, was July 9, 1965... by Don Mincher and Harmon Killebrew.

After two more hits, Luis Severino was promptly knocked from the game, although Chad Green got two strikeouts to stop the bleeding. Sevy would become the first starter to get only one out in a winner-take-all game (which the Wild Card is) since Gil Heredia of the Athletics did so against the Yankees in the deciding Game 5 of the 2000 ALDS.

Meanwhile, four batters into the Yankees' side, Severino was suddenly off the hook when Didi Gregorius clobbered a three-run homer. Only one other pitcher in postseason history had given up 3 runs on 1 out in a winner-take-all game and not lost it; that was Vic Aldridge for the Pirates in 1925. The Senators scored 4 runs in T1 (including one on a bases-loaded catcher's interference!) but rallied to win Game 7 and the series 9-7.

Brett Gardner then homered in the bottom of the 2nd to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead which they would not relinquish. It marked the second time that the Bronx Bombers had gone deep in the 1st and 2nd innings of the same postseason game; the other pair was Bernie Williams and Darryl Strawberry in Game 4 of the 1996 ALCS.

Ervin Santana needed 64 pitches to get through those first two innings and did not reemerge for the 3rd. Combined with Severino, it was the second "Game 1" in postseason history where neither starter went beyond 2 IP, and the other wasn't because of ineffectiveness. It was the famous suspended ALDS game between CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander in 2011; that contest was halted by rain in the middle of the 2nd inning, and was the first (and so far only) to be suspended-- not wiped out and started over-- under Bud Selig's "must play all 9 innings" rule that he made up during the 2008 World Series (later codified).

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Threes Are Wild

Those 1st-inning homers-- and starters going only two frames-- were just a foreshadowing of things to come. (By the way, in that 1925 Pirates rally in Game 7, Walter Johnson threw an 8-inning complete-game loss and gave up 15 hits.) In the NL Wild Card game the next day, history very nearly repeated when Paul Goldschmidt hit a 3-run homer in the 1st inning. Goldy also batted third, making him the sixth player ever to hit a 3-run homer as the third batter of a postseason game. Josh Hamilton in 2010 had been the most recent. Three batters later, the Diamondbacks' 1st inning ended exactly as the Twins' had: A 3-0 lead, second and third with one out, and then two strikeouts. However, when Jon Gray gave up two more hits, including a Ketel Marte triple, in the 2nd, his night was done early also. The 1⅓ innings were the shortest start of Gray's career, an "honor" which had been held by his fourth career game, a 7-run, 5-out escapade against the Mets on August 21, 2015.

Marte would go on to hit another triple in the 4th inning, but was unable to score after two balls to the infield. He became the first player with a pair of three-baggers in a postseason game since Mariano Duncan did it for the Phillies in the 1993 NLCS. And the last player with three total hits including two triples was Reds pitcher Dutch Ruether in 1919. That, of course, was the "thrown" World Series against the White Sox, so you can speculate about how, um, aggressive the Chicago defense was in trying to get Ruether out.

Although the Rockies clawed back to within 1 run twice, the D'backs held them off with even more triples-- two more, in fact, each of them scoring two runs. And thanks to every team going to the "bullpen" so early, one of those was hit by none other than pitcher Archie Bradley who ended up having to bat for himself. He thus became the first relief pitcher ever to triple in a postseason game, and the sixth overall (joining Dontrelle Willis, Tom Glavine, the aforementioned Dutch Ruether, Babe Ruth, and Cy Young).

By knocking in two runs, Bradley also became just the fourth reliever ever to record two RBIs in a postseason game. Michael Jackson of the Reds (1995) and Johnny Sain of the Yankees (1953) each hit doubles, while the Giants' Wilfred "Rosy" Ryan did it in 1921 while becoming the first pitcher to homer in a World Series.

When A.J. Pollock hit the final three-bagger in the 8th, it marked the first four-triple game in Diamondbacks history, and just the second in MLB this year (Cardinals at "Triples Alley" San Francisco, September 1). And only one other team in postseason history had hit four triples in a game; the 1903 Red Sox (actually still called the Americans then, to distinguish the American League team from the Braves) did it twice in the first World Series. Games 5 and 7 of that series were both played at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh, and at least one of them had such an overflow crowd that some fans were positioned behind ropes in the outfield. It's likely some of those triples were "automatic" based on the ground rules of the time about a fair ball going into the crowd.

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Snake Charmers

The Diamondbacks' number was certainly three when they moved to the Division Series against the Dodgers, but unfortunaely, that was the number of games they had left to play as Los Angeles swept the best-of-five.

Justin Turner duplicated Paul Goldschmidt's feat of hitting a three-run homer as the team's third batter of the game; he's the first Dodger to join that postseason club. Yaisel Puig's double then gave the Dodgers their first-ever 4-run 1st inning in a playoff game, and essentially knocked Taijuan Walker out of the game (though he ended up striking out the side before getting lifted). Walker was the seventh starter in D'backs history to give up 4+ runs while getting only three outs, but just the second pitcher in the last 35 years to get all three of those outs via the K. Justin Verlander did that against the Pirates on August 11, 2014.

Walker's replacement, Zack Godley, would give up three more runs and create a hole that even four Diamondbacks homers couldn't dig them out of. (It didn't help that all four were solo shots either.) They became the first visiting team ever to hit four dingers in a postseason game at Dodger Stadium, and as an added bonus, all were off Clayton Kershaw. The only other 4-HR game of his career was back on June 19 against the Mets, and he became the first pitcher in postseason history to allow four longballs and still get the win. Combined with that Mets game, he joins Ralph Branca as the only pitchers in Dodgers history (1884) to do it twice.

Turner, meanwhile, collected his fifth RBI with an 8th-inning single; he joins Pedro Guerrero (1981) and Davey Lopes (1976) as the only Dodgers with 5-RBI games in the postseason. Both of them did it in World Series games against the Yankees.

Goldy again staked the D'backs to a lead in Game 2 with another of those pesky 1st-inning homers. He became the first player with two of the multi-run variety in the same postseason since Lance Berkman in 2011, and it tied Luis Gonzalez for the most total 1st-inning homers in Arizona history (41).

The Diamondbacks then gave the ball to Robbie Ray, who managed to record six strikeouts and not give up a hit until the 4th inning. But that was largely because he had trouble finding the plate, also issuing four walks, hitting Justin Turner, and uncorking three wild pitches before getting pulled in the 5th. He had never before even been charged with two WPs, and the three were the most in a postseason game since then-Brewer Yovani Gallardo did it in the 2011 NLCS. Toss on the hit batter and it's only the second such performance in postseason history. Juan Guzman of the Blue Jays threw 3 WPs and hit one in the ALCS opener in 1993 (though they still won). And only two other pitchers this season had a line of 4 BB, 3 WP, and an HBP. One was fellow Arizonan Zack Godley (August 13), and the other was knuckleballer R.A. Dickey against Arizona (July 24).

With Ray out of the game, the Dodgers stepped up their running game behind the D'backs' bullpen, including a double-steal by Turner and Corey Seager in the 8th. They ended up with 4 SB for just the third time in postseason history; the other two games were in 1988 and 1965, both years in which the Dodgers won the World Series. And it was the first game in postseason history-- and first in all of 2017-- where a team stole four bases and was also "gifted" three wild pitches by the opponent.

All that led to a 9-5 final, just the second time the Dodgers had scored eight runs in back-to-back postseason games. The other was Games 3 and 4 of the 1955 World Series against the Yankees; they won both to tie up that series which famously ended with Brooklyn's only Series title.

Three was all the runs the Dodgers would need on Tuesday as they finished the three-game sweep, with Yu Darvish and friends holding the Diamondbacks to three hits. Cody Bellinger drove in two of those runs, the first on a groundout following Chris Taylor's leadoff double, but the other on a 5th-inning solo homer. That made him, by about two months, the youngest player in Dodgers history to hit a postseason home run, yanking that title away from Corey Seager last year. The only other Dodgers to hit one before turning 23 (both were slightly older than Seager) were Pete Reiser in 1941 and Mike Scioscia in 1981.

For whatever reason, Zack Greinke was sent back out to start the 6th and promptly gave up a homer to Austin Barnes for the final scoring. Like Ray before him, Greinke spent a lot of time missing the plate, and became the first starter in postseason history to walk five and give up two homers in a game where he was facing elimination. (One pitcher-- Javier Vazquez of the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS-- did do it in relief while already losing.)

Those three Arizona hits tied for the fewest ever allowed by the Dodgers in a potential series-clincher. They won all four such games, the most recent prior to Tuesday being Game 5 of the 1981 NLCS at Montréal. Goldschmidt did come to the plate in the 9th as the tying run, but fanned to end the game, and with it the Diamondbacks' 20th season. Only three of those seasons have ended on a strikeout; Matt Williams in 2000 and Robby Hammock in 2003 made the last out of the regular season (and the D'backs were eliminated long before then anyway, so not nearly as dramatic).

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Ai No Correa

Speaking of threes, Jose Altuve added to our 1st-inning home run collection when he went back-to-back with Alex Bregman at the start of Game 1 against the Red Sox. That was the second set of back-to-back homers in Astros postseason history, after Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus did it two years ago against the Royals.

However, it would be what Altuve did in the rest of the game that made headlines. In the 5th inning he took Chris Sale deep again, his third career multi-homer game, and the ninth time a Red Sox pitcher has allowed three dingers in a postseason contest. Rick Porcello also did it in last year's opener against Cleveland, and the Sox won only one of those nine games. And only two other Sox pitchers have ever given up nine hits and five runs (never mind the homers) in a Game 1: Roger Clemens in the 1986 ALCS and Cy Young in the first-ever World Series in 1903. (Unlike this year, Boston obviously won both series.)

Two innings and two pitchers later, Altuve greeted the third pitch from Austin Maddox with a third homer to complete the final score of 8-2. There have now been 10 three-homer games in postseason history; Altuve's was the first since Pablo Sandoval opened the 2012 World Series with three taters. No Astro had ever done it; in fact, Altuve was the first Astro to go deep thrice in any game since Carlos Lee on April 13, 2007, in Philadelphia. Morgan Ensberg (May 15, 2005) is the only other Astro to do it at Minute Maid Park since it opened; two visiting players (Sammy Sosa and Aramis Ramirez) have also pulled it off.

Dallas Keuchel shut down the Red Sox in Game 2, and this time it was Carlos Correa's turn to hit that 1st-inning homer to give Houston a lead that it never lost. It was the eighth 1st-inning homer allowed by Drew Pomeranz this season, the most for Boston since Pedro Martinez in 2004. Correa would add a two-run double in the 6th, giving him two hits, two runs, and four driven in. That's the same line he had in that 2015 game against Kansas City where he went back-to-back with Rasums, and only 11 players in postseason history have done it twice. The list is pretty fun: Carlos Delgado, Steve Garvey, David Justice, Gary Matthews, Hideki Matsui, Fred McGriff, Albert Pujols, Babe Ruth, Gary Sheffield, and John Valentin.

Correa's second run scored was Houston's eighth, also making them the 11th team to score at least 8 runs in Games 1 and 2 of the same postseason series (last: 2010 Giants in WS); the only one not to win that series was the 2003 Cubs (who lost Game 1 10-9). And when Jackie Bradley hit an otherwise-meaningless two-out RBI single in the 9th, it secured his place in this post. That run made the final score 8-2... exactly the same as Thursday's game. It was the first time Games 1 and 2 of a postseason series had ended with the same score since 2004, when the Cardinals beat the Dodgers in their NLDS by identical counts of 8-3.

Correa opened Game 3 at Fenway Park with yet another 1st-inning homer, making him the seventh player to hit them in back-to-back games (Corey Seager last year). However, that brief 3-0 lead would be the highlight for Houston, especially when Rafael Devers hit a 2-run go-ahead homer in the 3rd. That was Boston's fifth home run to turn a deficit into a lead when facing elimination; the last was by Johnny Damon off Oakland's Steve Sparks in 2003. Together with Correa, who turned 23 in September, it's the second time in postseason history that each team has had a player that young homer in the same game, and the other set also involves a Red Sock. It was Andrew Benintendi, with Francisco Lindor, in last year's ALDS.

David Price kept the Astros at bay for the second straight game, working four innings and scattering four singles. Price had recorded eight outs in Game 2 after Pomeranz was chased, and while there was an off-day in between, he became the first pitcher to throw at least 2⅔ of relief in back-to-back games since Andy Hawkins did it for the Padres in the 1984 World Series.

Hanley Ramirez quietly collected four hits and three RBIs, including a two-run double in the 6th. He became the first player in Red Sox postseason history to go 4-for-4 (or better) and drive in three runs, and only the second ever to do it in a game where his team stood to get bounced. Kevin McReynolds of the Mets did that in Game 6 of the 1988 NLCS, after which the Mets promptly got shut out in Game 7.

The final score would be 10-3 despite the top four hitters in the Boston lineup going 3-for-16. Starting with Hanley (and followed by Devers and Bradley who both homered), all 10 RBIs came from the bottom four spots in the order, just the second game in Red Sox history where they scored in double digits and had every run come from the 6- through 9-holes. The other was May 15, 2006, at Baltimore, and involved Jason Varitek, Mike Lowell, Alex Gonzalez, and the great Wily Mo Peña.

The Red Sox appeared to have life on Monday when Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run homer in the 5th inning against Justin Verlander. That's "reliever" Justin Verlander, entering from the bullpen for the first time in his pro career. Benintendi joined Dave Henderson in the 1986 ALCS as the only Boston hitters whose home runs turned a deficit into a lead in a "must-win" game. Verlander, for his part, hadn't given up a leadoff homer (i.e., first batter faced) since April 22, 2016.

The Astros would finally grab the lead back in the 8th when Alex Bregman and Josh Reddick combined to plate two runs off "reliever" Chris Sale (continuing this season's theme of everyone throwing two innings at random times of random games). Sale did pitch out of the bullpen during his first two years with the White Sox, but Monday was his first relief loss since the final game of the 2011 season against Toronto (he also got a blown save in that game, but they were 16 games out, so who cares). Yuli Gurriel added a 9th-inning single to his double and triple earlier in the game, and is the first player in postseason history with all three of those hits in a game where his team clinched a series win. Only one other player-- Freddie Patek of the 1977 Yankees-- had done it in a potential clincher, but the Yankees lost that game. (For added fun, Monday was Patek's birthday.)

And Rafael Devers gave the Boston one last moment to remember about the season when he rounded the bases as George Springer couldn't chase down a ball off the Green Monster. It was scored as the first inside-the-park homer by a Red Sock at Fenway since Jacoby Ellsbury hit one against Baltimore on September 19, 2011. Devers became the youngest player to hit an inside-the-parker in the postseason, and the youngest in any game since Edgar Renteria for the Marlins on April 5, 1997.

It was the third IHR in Sox postseason history; one was by Larry Gardner at Ebbets Field in Game 4 of the 1916 World Series, and the other is still the only leadoff IHR in World Series history, by Patsy Dougherty in the second-ever WS game in 1903.

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No Hits? No Problem.

If all those 1st-inning home runs were bothering you, well, then you needed to jump on the Cubs/Nationals series. Not only was it pretty much devoid of early home runs, it was devoid of early hits, with two different Nationals pitchers taking no-hitters into the 6th. While many baseball fans were watching the 13-inning drama between the Yankees and Indians on Friday (more on that in a moment), Stephen Strasburg was quietly retiring 15 of the first 16 Cubs batters, with only Addison Russell's walk breaking the streak. That set a mark for the longest no-hit bid in Nats/Expos postseason history (the "Expos" part of that is pretty short), topping Max Scherzer's four innings in last year's NLDS. Javier Baez promptly reached on an error to start the 6th, and with two outs, back-to-back snigles by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo plated two unearned runs. That also marked the deepest into a postseason game that the Cubs had been no-hit; Bill Donovan of the Tigers shut them down for 5⅓ in Game 2 of the World Series in 1908.

Kyle Hendricks was also dealing, holding the Nationals to just two singles (and no runs) over seven innings. He's the fourth Cubs pitcher with that line in a postseason game, and the only one to do it twice. Hendricks also kept the Dodgers off the board to close out last year's NLCS; the others are Rick Sutcliffe (1984 NLCS), Claude Paseau (1945 WS), and Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown in 1906. And Game 1 became only the second contest where both starters went 7+ innings, allowing no earned runs and no more than three hits. The other was the unlikely matchup of the Cardinals' Woody Williams and Houston's Brandon Backe in the 2004 NLCS.

Unfortunately for Strasburg, those two unearned runs hung an un-curly "L" next to his line, making him only the third pitcher in postseason history to strike out 10 opponents, allow zero earned, and lose. And the others are both John Smoltz, who did it in both 1993 (NLCS) and 1996 (WS) as the Braves rolled to 14 straight postseasons but only one championship.

Max Scherzer, meanwhile, didn't take kindly to Strasburg stealing his "longest no-hit bid" record, so three days later, in Game 3, he said give it back. The man who's already completed two no-hitters, and threatened them on many other occasions, scattered three walks and a hit batter before Ben Zobrist doubled over Jayson Werth's head with one out in the 7th. However, this time it was Jose Quintana who shut down the Nationals' bats, again yielding just two hits and one unearned run thanks to Kyle Schwarber making two errors on the same play. Only one other postseason game saw both starters go 5⅔ or longer and allow ≤ 2 hits, and it's our Williams/Backe 2004 matchup again.

Schwarber accounted for only half of the Cubs' errors, but the Nationals couldn't capitalize on the other two and lost 2-1. The Cubs thus became the first team to commit four errors in a postseason game and win it since the Red Sox beat the Cardinals in Game 2 of the 2004 World Series. It was also the first time the Cubs had ever won a postseason game where they were held to four hits with none of them being homers.

In between, the Nats rallied to take Game 2 when Adam Lind led off the 8th with his 15th pinch hit of the season (regular and post-), the most by any player since Greg Dobbs had 17 for the Phillies in 2008. Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman then followed with tying and go-ahead homers, the first time all year the Nationals had one of each in the 8th inning or later of the same game (to be fair, they didn't trail in the 8th a whole lot). The only other tying or go-ahead homer that late in Nats/Expos postseason history was by Jayson Werth in 2012 to force a Game 5 in the Division Series with the Cardinals. And Saturday's homers gave the win to Oliver Perez, whose only other postseason W was as a Met... in 2006! He is the ninth pitcher all-time to go 11+ seasons between his first and second postseason victories (full list).

Strasburg relented to Scherzer on the no-hit thing in Game 4, but instead said, I'll just set a different record. Strasburg fanned 12 in seven scoreless innings as the Nationals clung to a tenuous 1-0 lead. Only one other pitcher in postseason history-- Joe Coleman of the 1972 Tigers-- has thrown seven scoreless and struck out a dozen when facing elimination; Coleman threw a 14-K shutout to stave off an Oakland sweep in the ALCS. And he joined Mike Mussina of the 1997 Orioles as the only pitchers to strike out 10 and allow ≤ 3 hits in back-to-back postseason appearances.

That lead stayed tenuous thanks to Cubs "reliever" Jon Lester who replaced Jake Arrieta in the 5th. Lester got 11 outs before a Daniel Murphy single ended his day. The only other Cubs pitcher to throw 3⅔ of one-hit relief in the postseason was Harry McIntire, who took over for our old buddy Orval Overall in Game 1 of the 1910 World Series at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

After two walks and another pitching change, Michael Taylor un-tenuoused the lead (we know, not a word, don't @ us) with the first-ever grand slam in Nats/Expos postseason history. Taylor, of course, also hit a rare inside-the-park grand slam five weeks ago, making him the first player with an inside- and an outside- in the same season since Terry Pendleton did for the Cardinals in 1985.

Taylor then gave the Nationals early hope in Thursday's deciding Game 5 with a three-run homer in the 2nd inning. It was the first go-ahead homer in a winner-take-all game in Nats/Expos postseason history, three batters after Daniel Murphy hit the first tying one. (The franchise has only played five WTA games, so #SmallSampleSize.) But that also made Taylor just the fourth player to hit a grand slam and a three-run homer in the same postseason series. Troy O'Leary (1999) and Edgar Martinez (1995) hit both in the same game, while Nelson Cruz did it two games apart in 2011. Taylor added an RBI single in the 8th, becoming the first player in postseason history with consecutive 4-RBI games, and the first to have two such games in the same season when facing elimination.

Those hopes, however, were dashed by a four-run top of the 5th that started with an Addison Russell double. After that, however, it got weird, even for us. Javier Baez struck out but reached first on a passed ball, even as his backswing appeared to hit Matt Wieters in the head (not reviewable, but dead ball if called). The dazed Wieters then airmailed the throw to first and allowed Russell to score from second, the first run-scoring "K+PB" in postseason history (regardless of the error). Four pitches later, Wieters was called for catcher's interference, awarding Tommy La Stella first base. Wieters thus became the second catcher in postseason history to commit a CI and a PB in the same game, along with the Dodgers' Joe Ferguson, charged with catching knuckleballer Charlie Hough in the 1974 NLCS.

Three pitches after that, Jon Jay got plunked to force in another run. That was the first bases-loaded HBP in Cubs postseason history, and the second one ever issued by the Nationals or Expos (Joe Ross plunked the Dodgers' Joc Pederson last season). The fine folks at Baseball Reference queried their play-by-play database, which has every game since 1974, and about 70% before that, and found no game-- regular or postseason-- with a K+PB, a CI, an HBP, and an intentional walk (which happened after Russell's double) in the same inning.

Russell would double again in the 6th to drive home another run. He also had two extra-base hits and 4 RBIs in Game 6 of last year's World Series, becoming the first Cub to do that twice in the postseason. Eleven other players have done it all-time, a list that includes Duke Snider, Gary Sheffield, Albert Pujols, Steve Garvey, and Babe Ruth.

Ultimately, though, the Nationals' season would end like so many others in recent years, with a one-run defeat by a 9-8 count. Wade Davis got the last seven outs of the game, including one on a controversial replay overturn with two outs and two on, becoming just the third Cubs pitcher with a save of that long in the postseason. Aroldis Chapman got the final eight outs of World Series Game 5 last year against Cleveland, and Bill Lee (not "Spaceman") got nine despite allowing a run against the Tigers in 1935. Having lost Game 5 to the Dodgers last year by a 4-3 score, the Nationals got the dubious honor of being the second team ever to lose 1-run winner-take-all games in consecutive seasons, joining the Athletics of 2002-03. Tack on their 2014 defeat by the Giants in a 3-2 game, and they join the 1995-97 Indians as the only teams to be eliminated from the postseason with a one-run loss three times in four years.

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Clubhouse Lost, Clubhouse Regained

The no-hitter scares were not limited to the Nats/Cubs series; indeed, it looked like the Yankees wouldn't last long against the Indians when Trevor Bauer dealt five hitless frames in Game 1. That marked the longest no-hit bid in Indians postseason history; Bob Feller started their last World Series run in 1948 with four no-hit innings, and Early Wynn duplicated that in Game 2 of the 1954 Classic. It was the fifth time the Yankees had been no-hit through five in a postseason game; all of those have occurred this century, three of them are against the Tigers, and two of them were against the aforementioned Max Scherzer.

Aaron Hicks doubled in the 6th, but the Yankees would finish with just three hits and no runs; Jay Bruce's 2-run homer in the 4th was the biggest blow for Cleveland. Bruce, of course, spent parts of nine years a few hours down I-71 in Cincinnati; he is the first player ever to hit a postseason homer for both Ohio teams. The Yankees also uncorked four wild pitches in Game 1, the second team ever to do so in a postseason game. The Cardinals threw five in the opener of their 2000 NLDS against Atlanta.

Game 2 looked exactly the opposite when the Yankees unloaded for six runs against Corey Kluber, with Hicks' 3-run homer in the 3rd ultimately chasing him from the game. Leading 8-3 in the 6th, Joe Girardi made one oft-questioned decision to pull CC Sabathia after a four-pitch walk, and then another extremely-questioned decision not to challenge a Lonnie Chisenhall hit-by-pitch. If you've made it this far, you know that Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam two pitches later, the fifth in Indians postseason history. Jim Thome hit two, Albert Belle hit one in 1996, and Elmer Smith hit the very first postseason slam in the 1920 World Series, but played second fiddle to Bill Wambsganss's unassisted triple play.

Jay Bruce tied the game with another homer in the 8th, joining Thome (1999 ALDS) as the only Clevelanders to homer in the first two games of a postseason series. Finally Yan Gomes found the hole for an RBI single in the 13th, the second 13th-inning walkoff (or later) in Indians postseason history. Tony Peña's solo homer beat the Red Sox in the opener of their 1995 Division Series.

Needing a win to stay alive, the Yankees handed the ball to Masahiro Tanaka in Game 3. He and Carlos Carrasco did their best Cubs/Nats impression, combining for 13 strikeouts and zero runs through the first six innings. It was just the third time in 2017 that a Yankee game had been 0-0 through six innings, and all of those happened to be Tanaka starts at Yankee Stadium. He also blanked the Rangers (Yu Darvish) on June 23 and the Athletics (Sean Manaea) on May 26. Tanaka became the second Yankee to throw at least seven scoreless innings and allow ≤ 3 hits in a "must-win" postseason game; Johnny Kucks threw a complete-game shutout in Game 7 of the 1956 World Series.

Greg Bird's solo homer to lead off the 7th would prove to be the only score in the game, marking the sixth 1-0 postseason win for the Yankees and the third loss for the Indians. Solo homers decided the previous 1-0 game for both teams as well: Jorge Posada in the Yankees' 2001 Division Series over Oakland, and a David Justice home run that most Cleveland fans would rather forget; it gave the Braves the 1995 World Series championship.

Bird's shot (see what we did there?) was the Yankees' first go-ahead homer in the 7th inning or later of a potential elimination game since... yep. That one. And the last time any Yankee had homered in a 1-0 win was back on May 26, 2010, when Derek Jeter hit one during the first season at Target Field. The Bronx Bombers had the longest drought in the majors of doing such a thing.

The phrase "comedy of errors" would not be off-base to describe Game 4. Trevor Bauer on short rest didn't have nearly the dominant outing as he did in Game 1, but it was four Indians errors-- two by 3B Giovanny Urshela-- that led to a whopping six unearned runs as the Yankees rolled, 7-3. Bauer gave up four of those before being pulled; he became just the second Cleveland starter to give up zero earned runs in a postseason game but not finish the 2nd inning. The other... was Trevor Bauer, in last year's ALCS when he famously sliced his finger playing with his drone, attempted to bandage it up, but then the bandage came undone and he, um, "got his red on" all over the mound. The Indians had only one other postseason game in their history with four errors-- and they still won. That was a 3-2 win over Seattle in the 1995 ALCS. Combined with the Cubs' four-error game from above, it's the first season since 2010 where there have been two such games, and the first time ever that two had happened on the same day.

Meanwhile, on the Yankees' side, Aaron Judge continued his torrid pace of, well, striking out, with four more whiffs. He did, however, rope a two-run double-- his only hit of the entire series-- and thus became the first Yankee with four strikeouts but two RBIs since Alfonso Soriano did it against the Twins on May 18, 2002. Only two players in Yankees history (regular season or post-) had done it without hitting a home run... and they were in the same game! Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill both posted that line in an 11-inning, 10-8 slugfest with the Mariners on August 23, 1997. Judge finished the Division Series with 16 strikeouts; combined with his 208 from the regular season, he now holds the record for most total whiffs in a year, one more than Mark Reynolds' recognized record of 223 in 2009.

Tommy Kahnle recorded the final six outs for New York to earn his fourth career save, but he got five of those via strikeout. No Yankee pitcher had recorded a five-strikeout "save" in a postseason game since before the stat was official. Allie Reynolds was the only other one to do it, in Game 4 of the 1949 World Series at Ebbets Field.

And what can we say about Game 5 except "Didi"? The Yankee shortstop clobbered two home runs to join Jason Giambi (2003) and Yogi Berra (1965) as the only Bronx Bombers to go deep twice in a "winner-take-all" game. CC Sabathia retired the first nine Clevelanders in order, struck out nine total, but got into trouble in the 5th and was replaced. Combined with nine strikeouts by Luis Severino in Game 4, it was the second time Yankee pitchers had posted back-to-back 9-K games in the same postseason series; Roger Clemens and "El Duque" Orlando Hernandez did it in Games 2 and 3 of the 2000 fall classic against the Mets.

Giovanny Urshela partially redemeed himself with an RBI single in that 5th inning, becoming the first player in Indians history to have a postseason RBI on his birthday. But David Robertson (who relieved Sabathia) and Aroldis Chapman kept Cleveland hitless for the last 4⅔ innings, the third tandem of pitchers in postseason history to each throw two hitless frames in the same game. Dave Dravecky and Craig Lefferts did it for the Padres in the 1984 NLCS, and more memorably, "El Sid" Fernandez and Jesse Orosco of the Mets stymied the Red Sox in innings 5, 6, 8, and 9 while the offense came back to win Game 7 of the 1986 World Series.

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And then there were four.

We'll Get 'Em Next Year

Even in the final week of the season, we persist in combing through every boxscore every day because, even in a meaningless game, fun things can still happen. Since there are now only 10 teams left playing, and you'll spend all of October hearing about them, we decided to give a quick parting shot to the other 20 who didn't make it.

(Don't worry, the playoff teams get their due later, too.)


Atlanta Braves

Sometimes one player blows out every line on the boxscore, and sometimes it's more of a team effort. You could get no more "team effort"-y than the Braves did in their rain-induced doubleheader with the Mets at Citi Field on Monday. In winning the first game 9-2, Atlanta collected 10 hits, all by different players-- all nine starters (including Lucas Sims) and Matt Adams who later pinch-hit in the pitcher's spot.

It was the first game in (at least) the live-ball era where the Braves as a team had compiled 10+ hits with all of them by different players (not to be confused with "10 players had a hit"; this is where nobody had two). And seven of those 10 went for extra bases, the Braves' only game this year where seven different players had one. Their only other such game in Queens (either stadium) was a 16-0 win on July 2, 1999.


Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles spent most of June giving up five runs a game, but more recently it was the offense that sputtered its way through September. Nineteen times during the month they scored three runs or fewer (they actually won three of those games), and after starting the month two games over .500 they finished it 11 games under. So Sunday's season finale with the Rays fit right in.

It was the 5th inning before Trey Mancini got the Birds' first hit off Blake Snell, who then set down nine more batters in order. Mark Trumbo managed the second hit by beating out a grounder to second, and Manny Machado added another meaningless infield single with two outs in the 9th. Snell, meanwhile, struck out a career-high 13, marking the second time this year that Baltimore had been shut out on three hits and struck out 13 times. The other was against Jose Quintana's first start as a Cub, July 16 at Camden Yards. The Orioles had never before had two such games in the same season.

The lack of offense Sunday spoiled a serviceable outing from Kevin Gausman, who went seven innings with no walks, nine strikeouts, and only one run, a solo homer by Kurt Casali. He's just the second Oriole (i.e., since 1954) to pull off that line and take the loss. Dave McNally allowed only a 4th-inning homer to Tommy Harper of the Indians, but Sonny Siebert took a no-hit bid into the 7th and won a shutout 2-0.


Chicago White Sox

The White Sox limped their way to 67 wins this year, 15 of those in September, and the most memorable one lately was probably Nick Delmonico's walkoff home run in Wednesday's 10th inning. His two-run tater beat the Angels 6-4 and was his third hit of the game. It was the first walkoff homer in extras for the White Sox in more than two years, dating to Adam Eaton's solo shot against the Blue Jays on July 8, 2015. Only two teams had gone longer without one, and one of those was Wednesday's opponent, the Angels. (Also the Rays.) And the last multi-run extra-inning walkoff homer for the White Sox was on August 3, 2012, by Alex Rios, also against the Angels. That was also the last time any Sox batter had 3 hits, 3 RBI, and an extra-inning walkoff homer before Delmonico did it this week.


Cincinnati Reds

Ever since it opened in 2003, Great American Ball Park has been the homer-friendly paradise that Riverfront was not. In those 15 seasons, it's seen more home runs (3,150) than any other park in the majors (though the combined Yankee Stadiums are right behind it at 3,090), and this year it finished second only to Camden Yards (262 to 244).

So it's no surprise that the Reds have a lot of multi-homer games. But otherwise they, um, "underperformed" this season as they cobbled out just 68 wins. So even though they were in Milwaukee-- another homer-friendly park-- on Tuesday, they could never overcome a Domingo Santana blast in the 1st inning and lost to the Brewers 7-6 despite hitting three longballs in their comeback attempt. It marked the 13th game this season where the Reds hit three homers and lost. Not only is that the most in the majors, it ties the all-time record for such a thing. The 1999 Rockies (with the benefit of Coors Field) and the 1998 Mariners also posted 13 such contests.

Joey Votto continued the homer trend on Wednesday, opening the Reds' 6-0 shutout with a 1st-inning solo shot. It was his 11th 1st-inning home run this season, the most by a Reds batter since George Foster had 12 in 1977.


Detroit Tigers

It was not a good year for baseball along the I-75 corridor (see also: Cincinnati, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami), but at least the northernmost member of the club decided to have some fun with it on Saturday. With Brad Ausmus managing his final few games for the team, and those games meaning nothing, he recycled an idea posed by Andrew Romine a couple years earlier to pull an "all nine positions" stunt.

Another Tiger, Shane Halter, had done it in the final game of the 2000 season; Ausmus, in that same game, played all four "bases" (C, 1B, 2B, 3B) and remains the only player in the live-ball era to do that in a game, with the obvious exception of the "all-9"ers. The others in that club, incidentally, are Scott Sheldon of the Rangers earlier in 2000, Minnesota's Cesar Tovar in 1968, and Athletics great Bert Campaneris in 1965.

We knew all along that James McCann would probably end up giving up his DH spot and catching after Romine passed through, but it wasn't terribly clean when it happened. After a double, a single, a passed ball, and a walk, Romine was forced to abandon his signal-calling duties in mid-inning and go back to second base where he had spent the 7th. Blaine Hardy (and McCann) got out of any further damage, keeping the score at 3-2 and ensuring Romine another place in history. By waiting so long to give up the DH and have him pitch, Romine took the mound with that one-run lead in the 8th. Since saves became official in 1969, he's the first position player ever to take the mound in a save situation, and by retiring his lone batter (Miguel Sano), he also became the first position player ever to get an official "hold".

McCann, meanwhile, became the first Tiger to both DH and catch in the same game since Mickey Tettleton did it against the White Sox on September 8, 1992.



Kansas City Royals

Jason Vargas was moved back to a starting role for the Royals in 2017, and would finish tied for the major-league lead in wins (we know, pitcher wins) with 18. Some of his 11 losses, however,...

One of those came in the season's final game on Sunday when Vargas allowed six hits including two homers, walked four, gave up six runs, threw 92 pitches, and left before recording an out in the 5th. That broke a four-game win streak, and reminded us that Vargas had a stretch in August of giving up six to eight hits and four to six runs every game.

Indeed, Sunday's finale was the fifth time this season that Vargas allowed six runs, six hits, and two homers in five innings or less. (He lost five of those, and would have done it a sixth time but for giving up just one homer.) And that's the most such games by a Royals pitcher ever in a single season. Jose Lima did it four times in 2005.


Los Angeles Angels

Cam Bedrosian may never squeak out a Cy Young Award like his father did in 1987, but even Steve had a few outings in his career where he gave up five runs and blew a save. So we can at least say the apple didn't fall far from the tree; on Saturday night against Seattle, Cam started the 8th with a 4-1 lead. Fernando Salas ended up getting all three outs in the 8th, and with a 6-4 deficit. Three singles, a Kyle Seager three-run bomb, and a Yonder Alonso solo shot made Cam the first Angels pitcher to face five batters, have all of them get hits, and have all of them score, since Mark Petkovsek did it in Cleveland on August 31, 1999. And only other two pitchers in Angels history have allowed five runs and blown a save while getting zero outs; they were Eric Weaver in 2000 and Mike Holtz in 1997.

At least all those Cy Young ballots have already been mailed.


Miami Marlins
The Marlins' won-lost record (which, by the way, wasn't good) was forgotten weeks if not months ago. In September it's been the pursuit of another record as Giancarlo Stanton cranked home runs. After sitting on 57 for four games (three of them at Coors Field, even!), Stanton returned home on Thursday and took Julio Teheran deep in the 4th inning for dinger number 58. Four innings later off Rex Brothers, boom, there goes 59.

Only nine other players have hit 59 homers in a season, and only two of those nine recorded numbers 58 and 59 in the same game. Mark McGwire did it against the Marlins on September 2, 1998; and Babe Ruth hit two against the Senators on September 29, 1927, before clubbing #60 the next day to establish the record for the next three decades (or longer, depending on who you ask anymore; it seems everyone gets an asterisk for something these days).

Also, on Friday, after giving up five runs in the first two innings to Atlanta, the Marlins clawed their way back to take a 6-5 lead going to the 9th. Jarlin Garcia struck out the leadoff man but then loaded the bases, prompting a call for Brad Ziegler. Ziegler-- on one pitch-- not only got two outs and the save, but he got an assist too; it was the old 1-2-3 double play to retire the tying run at the plate. He's the first pitcher in the majors this year, and first in Marlins history, to record a two-out save while throwing just one pitch. The other only pitcher in the past five seasons to do it was David Robertson for the White Sox on September 28 of last year.

Alas Stanton would fall short of his asterisk, going 5-for-14 over the remainder of the series, but with four singles and a double. Don Mattingly even put him in the leadoff spot Sunday to try and get him one more at-bat (he did the same thing last season), to no avail. Stanton finished his season with a slugging percentage of only .631 despite all those homers; that's the second-lowest by anyone in the 59-HR club. Roger Maris, who is also prone to asterisks, slugged .620 in 1961.


Milwaukee Brewers

As mentioned, Miller Park is fairly hitter-friendly, ranking in the top 10 in home runs this season (217). The Brewers cranked 120 of those at home, one shy of their team record from ten years ago, and just one more homer would have broken up this note. Twice this week-- Monday against the Cubs and Thrusday against the Reds-- Milwaukee got shut out and managed no more than four singles in front of their home fans. They did the same thing against the Pirates on September 11 (notice these are all divisional opponents and the Brewers missed the playoffs by one game).

Only once before in team history had the Brewers/Pilots suffered three such defeats (home shutouts on four hits or fewer) in as little as 17 days. The nice part is that it might be a while before they break this mark. The Tigers' Woodie Fryman started August 1974 by one-hitting the Brewers (Bobby Mitchell's single broke up the big in the 7th), and then on the 6th and 7th they were shut out by Boston with five hits combined. So back then it was three times in seven days, not seventeen. Of course, those Brewers finished 10 games under .500 and 15 back.


New York Mets

That previously-mentioned Monday doubleheader against the Braves opened up the chance for some strange lineup quirks, especially in the nightcap, and Terry Collins didn't let us down. We found Nimmo-- that's Brandon, and that's actually his Twitter handle-- in the leadoff spot for the first time in a month. He came through with three hits including two doubles and a run scored.

Nimmo is among the younger "pups" in the Mets lineup, as a former co-worker used to call them, so we thought there might be a note to that effect. We headed over to his Baseball Reference page and it wasn't the age that caught our eye, but the fact that he's from Cheyenne, Wyo.

It turns out only 16 major-leaguers have ever hailed from Wyoming, a state which doesn't even have a professional team anymore since the Casper Ghosts (no, really) hit the trail for Grand Junction, Colo., in 2012. The most recent was Zach Walters, who did cups of coffee with three teams but spent this past season in the Royals' minor-league system.

But that makes it pretty easy to "find" some Nimmo notes. The last Wyomingite (yes, we had to look up the demonym) to play regularly was Jays catcher John Buck, and your catcher doesn't generally bat leadoff because most of them aren't, well, fleet of foot. No Wyoming native had posted a three-hit game from the leadoff spot since Mike Lansing for the Rockies on April 11, 1998. And the last with two extra-base hits was also Lansing, in his previous stint with Montréal, May 13, 1994.

While Nimmo did hit a triple on Saturday, it was Asdrubal Cabrera who stole that show with a 3-run homer in the 11th to beat the Phillies 7-4. It was the Mets' first 3- or 4-run homer in extra innings this season; their last had been by... Asdrubal Cabrera last September against the Phillies. Cabrera joins Kevin McReynolds (1990 and 1991) as the only Mets ever to hit two such homers.

And symbolic of Terry Collins' final game as manager, the Mets limped across the finish line on Sunday by giving up 11 runs to the Phillies and only managing two hits of their own. They became the first team in (at least) the live-ball era to be held to two hits and shut out by 11-0 or more in a season finale. The previous "record" was held by the 2006 Orioles, whose 9-0 score was on the other end of Devern Hansack's famous rain-shortened no-hitter-that-doesn't-count.


Oakland Athletics

We enjoy making fun of the AL West because the vast majority of their games are so dull and boring and end with scores like 3-1 where absolutely nothing interesting happens. Once in a while, however, an exception sneaks through. That was Monday's Mariners/Athetics game where Seattle hit four home runs before finally chasing Daniel Gossett in the 5th inning. The last A's starter to surrender seven runs including four homers, in any number of innings pitched, was Gio Gonzalez-- now considered one of the Nationals' aces-- on July 20, 2009, in a 14-13 win over the Twins. Gossett is the first ever to do it in a home game against Seattle.


Philadelphia Phillies

Not only were the Phillies victimized by Asdrubal Cabrera's 11th-inning homer on Saturday, but starter Henderson Alvarez didn't help out much either. Alvarez-- who famously backed into a walkoff no-hitter three years ago-- did his A.J. Burnett impression by walking six and striking out zero before departing in the 5th inning. He allowed three runs and escaped the loss when Rhys Hoskins tied the game in the 7th. But he became just the third Phillies starter in the past 30 years to walk six (or more) and strike out zero in a game. J.A. Happ did it against the Nationals on April 15, 2010, but it took him six innings. Kyle Kendrick pulled it off (along with seven runs) on April 9, 2008, also against the Mets, in the second game of Shea Stadium's final year.

Cesar Hernandez also took some walks in Wednesday's win over the Nationals; the Phillies' leadoff man drew three of them and stole a base, but got forced at second twice and stranded once. Their last leadoff hitter with that line was Jimmy Rollins against the Cardinals on August 1, 2008.


Pittsburgh Pirates

Don't try telling Andrew McCutchen that the Pirates got mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on September 16. "Cutch" drove in the Pirates' first run on Tuesday with a 1st-inning double, but he was nowhere near done. After two hits and two walks, McCutchen came up again with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 2nd, and sure enough. Did we mention this was an interleague game against the Orioles? No Pirate had ever hit a grand slam against the current Orioles/Browns franchise (including postseason), and Pittsburgh had only recorded one prior grand slam against "Baltimore". That was by George "Chappy" Lane on August 14, 1882, when both cities had teams in the old American Association. (We cannot find any surviving info as to the origin of his "Chappy" nickname.)

And back to Tuesday, in the 6th McCutchen came up again with two runners on base and the Pirates already holding a 7-1 lead. He didn't care. Boom, three-run homer-- which would ultimately be the 10-1 final-- and an 8-RBI night. Only two other players in Pirates history have recorded 4 hits, 4 runs scored, and 8 RBI in a game; they are Johnny Rizzo on May 30, 1939, and HOF'er Ralph Kiner at Brooklyn on June 25, 1950. But Cutch is the third player this year with that line, joining Anthony Rendon and Scooter Gennett. MLB hadn't seen three players do that in a season since 1950 either; Kiner was one of those, along with "only" Gil Hodges of the Dodgers and Bobby Doerr of the Red Sox.

The last Pirate to hit a grand slam and a 3-run homer in the same game was Bob Skinner at Crosley Field in Cincinnati on May 31, 1959. And ignoring the four hits, McCutchen is the fifth player this season to have an 8-RBI game (add Mookie Betts and Chris Iannetta to the list above). That ties the MLB record for most 8-RBI games in a season; it also happened in 1999, 1977, and 1961.

By the way, the 10-1 final? That was the biggest victory for the Pirates against "Baltimore" since July 24, 1897.

San Diego Padres

The Brewers were not the only ones hanging a lot of zeroes this week. On Wednesday the Padres concluded their season series with the Dodgers by getting swept, 10-0, at Chavez Ravine. San Diego managed just two hits against Rich Hill, who also struck out 10, plus one against Kenley Jansen in the 9th. It was the third time in team history that the Padres had suffered a double-digit shutout at Dodger Stadium, and this note has even more impact when you remember that the Padres gained major-league status in 1969. The only other times San Diego was blanked by double digits in Los Angeles were June 17, 1969 (11-0), and April 15, 1969 (14-0).

It was the sixth time in 2017 that the Padres had been shut out on three hits or fewer, the most in the majors. Over the last five seasons (2013-17), they have a wide lead on the field; San Diego's done it 34 times, versus the Mets' 29 and the Phillies' 26.

Rich Hill-- by one day-- became the oldest Dodgers pitcher to allow ≤ 2 hits and strike out 10, against any opponent, since Dazzy Vance did it at Ebbets Field on September 21, 1928. We hoped that the only reason Vance was one day older was because 1928 was a leap year, but alas, he was born in March.

After an off-day on Thursday, the Padres went to AT&T Park on Friday and proceeded to get shut out by the Giants as well. That 8-0 score was just the third time in the Padres' major-league history (again, 1969) that they'd suffered back-to-back shutouts by at least eight runs; the Diamondbacks did it to them on July 25-26, 2002; and those pesky Dodgers blanked them 8-0 in each of the first two games (April 5-6) of the 1974 campaign.


San Francisco Giants

It not being an even year, the Giants weren't expected to be good, but they weren't expected to be quite as bad either. (Perhaps that odd/even thing has run its course.) They epitomized that on Tuesday when starter Matt Moore faced 13 Diamondbacks and got three of them out. He did get one more on a caught-stealing, but the damage was done and Arizona cruised to an 11-4 win. It was the 13th time this season that a Giants pitcher had given up seven earned runs in an outing (starter or reliever, regardless of innings); that's one shy of the team "record" which dates to 1930.

It was Moore's third such game this season out of the 13; his teammate Matt Cain, who announced his retirement this week, has done it four times, the most by a single pitcher since... Matt Cain in 2013. Cain has 17 career games with 7+ ER allowed, the most in team history. (Freddie Fitzsimmons, part of that 1930 group, has 14.)

And one of Cain's outings (August 27) came on just two outs, when he entered another game with Arizona in the 8th inning and turned a 2-0 deficit into a 10-0 deficit. That makes him and Moore the first pair of Giants with a 7-ER-on-less-than-4-outs game in the same season since Mike LaCoss and Trevor Wilson did it in 1991.

In one bright spot, the Giants took that opener with San Diego by an 8-0 count on Friday, as mentioned above, but piled up 17 hits in doing so. It was the first game where one Giant (in this case, Joe Panik) had four singles and another (Buster Posey) had three doubles since Whitey Lockman and Bobby Thomson (respectively) did it at Crosley Field in Cincinnati on July 14, 1952.

Cain did go out on a good note Saturday, throwing five scoreless innings and allowing just two hits before the bullpen blew the game again. Since moving to San Francisco in 1958, only five pitchers have thrown that line (5+ IP, 0 R, ≤ 2 hits) in their final game with the Giants; the others are Mike Leake (who's still active, just not with San Fran), Livan Hernandez (2002), Wilson Alvarez (1997), and Vida Blue (1986).

And you can't fault Pablo Sandoval for trying to hit the ball, but his walkoff homer in the season finale Sunday actually cost the Giants the worst record in the majors and next year's number-1 draft pick. The last time San Francisco won its season finale via walkoff homer was in 1987, when Bob Brenly went deep against the Braves. The last time any team hit a walkoff homer to close the regular season was... well, yeah. That one.


Seattle Mariners

A few minutes ago we mentioned Monday's game between the Mariners and Athletics in which Daniel Gossett gave up four home runs. On the Seattle side, however, Andrew Albers was summoned out of the bullpen for the 7th, and proceeded to retire nine of the 11 batters he faced en route to his first save of the year. He also struck out three, making him the first Seattle pitcher to earn a 3-inning save with at least three strikeouts since Julio Mateo did it, also against Oakland, on September 26, 2003.


St Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals hung in for most of September, still a long shot to catch the Cubs in the NL Central. Then last weekend happened and, mm, not so much. In losing three straight to the Pirates and Cubs-- in the process getting jumped by the Brewers for second place-- the Cardinals had to watch the Cubs celebrate on their own field Thursday night for the first time since 1935. (The Cubs also claimed the pennant in St. Louis in 1938, but not with a victory; they backed in because the Pirates lost first.)

Monday's 10-2 loss to the Cubs was over early when starter Lance Lynn gave up eight runs and didn't come out for the 4th inning. Kris Bryant and Javier Baez both took him deep. That followed the 11-6 loss in Pittsburgh last Saturday in which Lance Lynn gave up eight runs and didn't make it out of the 1st. Since earned runs were first official-ized by the National League in 1912 (the AL came along in '13), it's the first time in Cardinals history that starters had given up 8 of them in 3 innings or less, twice in a three-game span. Let's just say late September isn't a good time for that to happen.

That Monday game also featured The Great Nacho Incident where Addison Russell dove into the stands and disrupted a fan's situation. At the suggestion of Joe Maddon, and with the help of some stadium personnel, Russell made it right during the next inning break, which the Kernels Rules Desk pointed out, (a) is technically illegal, and (b) could never have happened if there was a big net all the way to the foul pole, as has been a big topic this month.

It's probably time to get rid of this one, right?
(Official Playing Rules, Office of the Commissioner of Baseball)

Tampa Bay Rays

With the Yankees and Red Sox chasing each other, the Rays were mathematically eliminated from the AL East about two weeks ago, but they could still go to the Bronx this week and play spoiler, since wins (Yankee losses) would clinch things for Boston that much sooner. They... didn't.

Blake Snell was handed the ball for Tuesday's opener, and 35 minutes later he handed it back, having allowed four hits, four walks, a stolen base, four runs, and failed to record an out in the 2nd. He was the first Rays starter to allow eight baserunners while getting just three outs since J.P. Howell did it in a 15-4 meltdown against the aforementioned Red Sox on July 5, 2007.

After losing a 6-1 game on Wednesday, it looked like Thursday's finale was on the way to "sweep" status when Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge led off the game with back-to-back homers off Jake Faria. That marked the fourth time in (Devil) Rays history that they had allowed back-to-back homers to start a game, and three of those happened this season. Alen Hanson and Yolmer Sanchez of the White Sox took Chris Archer deep on September 2; and back on May 23 it was Cameron Maybin and Mike Trout off Alex Cobb. (The other game was against the Yankees on April 6, 2003.)

The Rays roared back, however, with a 7-run 5th inning, just their second such frame this year (May 14 at Boston) and their fourth ever at Yankee Stadium (two at each park, most recent September 23, 2010). Former New Britain Rock Cat Trevor Plouffe provided the final margin with a pinch-hit solo homer in the 6th, the first pinch-hit tater in Rays history at either Yankee Stadium.



Texas Rangers

Only one is earned. The problem is that they all still count. In Monday's 4th inning, Rangers starter Andrew Cashner had two outs and the bases loaded, but a 2-1 lead which would be safe as long as he (or his defense) could get that third out. Mmmm, nope. George Springer of the Astros grounded one to Elvis Andrus at short who booted it. Tie game. But more notably, a two-out error that should have ended the inning. No problem, next batter will get us out of this. Bases-loaded walk to Jose Altuve. Rangers down 3-2. No problem, it's only the 4th and plenty of time left. Another error, this one by Will Middlebrooks at third. Then a two-run single to knock Cashner out of the game, then an Evan Gattis double to clear the bases of Cashner's runners, then finally a foulout to really actually end the inning. Cashner's line: 3⅔ innings, 8 runs, one earned.

No other pitcher in Rangers history had ever given up eight total runs with only one of them earned. In the previous 10 years, only two others in the majors had pulled it off, the more recent being then-Blue Jay Mark Buehrle in a meaningless season finale against the Rays in 2015.

The Astros' 8-run inning was their sixth this season, topping Milwaukee's five for most in the majors. They'd had five 8-run frames total in the previous 14 seasons (2003-16).


Toronto Blue Jays

The Jays played spoiler for at least one day on Tuesday, winning a 9-2 game at Fenway Park to allow the Yankees to close within 3 games of the AL East. Josh Donaldson started things early with a solo home run as the second batter of the game, and then gave the Jays the lead again with a 3rd-inning solo shot. It was the third time this year that Donaldson had homered in both of his first two plate appearances, tying the Jays' record for such a thing. Carlos Delgado also had three such games in 2003.

After hitting a leadoff homer against the Yankees on Sunday, Teoscar Hernandez would join the party with a 5th-inning homer off Chris Sale and another off Heath Hembree in the 8th. Only once before had two Blue Jays had multiple homers in the same game at Fenway; they were Jesse Barfield and Rance Mulliniks in an 8-5 win on July 3, 1986. And by batting one-two in the order, Hernandez and Donaldson became the first pair of Blue Jays ever to post a multi-homer game from both of those spots in the same contest.


Bottom Of The Bag

⋅ Masahiro Tanaka, Friday: First pitcher in Yankees history to strike out 15, walk 0, and allow 0 runs in a game.

⋅ Marwin Gonzalez, Monday: Seventh different Astros batter this year with a 4-hit, 3-run, 3-RBI game. First team ever to have seven different players do it in same season.

⋅ Aaron Hicks, Tuesday: Third Yankee leadoff hitter this year (Ellsbury, Gardner) to draw three walks in a game. Last season where three different Yankees did it was 1953 (Gil McDougald, Billy Martin, Phil Rizzuto).

⋅ A.J. Cole, Saturday: First Nats/Expos pitcher to throw 3⅔ innings or more of hitless relief, and also get a hit himself at the plate, since Dan Schatzeder at Mets, June 10, 1983.

⋅ Astros, Mon-Thu: First team to win four consecutive games, each by 9 runs or more, since the Detroit Wolverines in June 1887.

⋅ Brian Dozier & Eduardo Escobar, Friday: First time in Twins/Senators history that top two batters in order each had a homer, a double, and 3 RBI. Also second game in team history scoring 6+ runs with all of them driven in by those two spots (other was April 28, 1938).

⋅ Jose Ramirez, Sunday: Finished season with 56 doubles, 6 triples, and 29 homers. Only three players have ever reached all those marks in a season, and the others are both in the Hall of Fame. Joe "Ducky" Medwick did it in his triple-crown year of 1937, and Chuck Klein recorded those hits for the Phillies in 1930.