Dirty Water

A common refrain is that if analytics could predict everything, well, then there'd be no need to play the games. Could we have crowned a World Series champion back in April when the Red Sox started 17-2? Well, yeah, we could have, but then the last six months wouldn't have been remotely interesting, now, would they? So despite finishing the regular season with a team-record 108 wins, Boston still needed 11 more to truly be fulfilled. You even saw Alex Cora and his "win wall" ignoring the 108 and saying it's all about getting 11 more now.

After surviving a closer-than-it-looked Division Series against the Yankees and collecting the required four wins against Houston for the American League pennant, the Sawx were up to 115 wins. That's a lot. It's more than the Orioles and Royals had combined. The real prize, however, was the quest for 119 against the heavily analytics- and numbers-driven Dodgers. For that we must head north, well past 115th Street (or even 263rd at the Yonkers line), to Jersey. Um, hang on, what? Yes, that is the recently-redacted Yawkey Way in Boston, now back to being Jersey Street, which hadn't hosted a World Series game under that moniker since October 22, 1975, when Cora was four days old.

If your World Series drinking game had a provision for every time a broadcaster mentioned how cold it was, well, at least you were warm and toasty. It's New England in October. And it's not like we haven't been here before. Thanks to "season creep" (and note, that timer in the top-right corner is now counting to an earliest-ever season opener of March 20!), this was the fourth World Series to begin on October 23, and three of those games have been played at Fenway Park (also 2013 and 2007). And spoiler alert, Boston won all of them.

While the Dodgers were busy shivering and rounding up sled dogs to double as blankets, the Sawx opened with back-to-back singles from Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi, the seventh time a team's first two batters of a World Series had gotten hits. The last was in that 2007 game at Fenway, and the pair of Sawx to do it was Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. When both of them later scored, it continued yet another theme: On six occasions has Game 1 of a World Series been played at Fenway Park; Boston scored in the 1st inning of that game four times. They won those four series. The two series where they didn't score in the 1st of Game 1, they lost.

No sooner had Manny Machado tied the game in the top of the 3rd than J.D. Martinez had untied it with an RBI double to score Benintendi again. J.D. joined Rico Petrocelli (Game 6, 1967) as the only Red Sox hitters to drive in a run in each of their first two plate appearances in a World Series game; Rico hit two homers to at least force a Game 7 in that series.

Of course this wouldn't be the season of #bullpenning if both starters didn't issue a leadoff walk in the 5th and have their managers declare that it must be time to go now. And we're not talking any starters here. Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale were only the fourth pair of Game 1 starters where neither went five innings. Woody Williams and Tim Wakefield both left an 11-9 slugfest in 2004; Dave McNally (5 walks) and Don Drysdale (2 homers) did it in 1966; and Waite Hoyt and John "Mule" Watson traded 3-run starts in 1923. (We can find no info on "Mule" other than that he already had the nickname by the time he reached the majors.)

Both those leadoff walks in the 5th would end up scoring, but not before Benintendi had recorded his third hit of the game and advanced when Ryan Madson's very first offering turned into a wild pitch. That would ultimately tag Kershaw with the loss, and Madson with the functional equivalent of a blown save. (This will be a theme.) Manny Machado got the Dodgers back within 1 in the 7th with a sac fly to drive in his third run, making him just the second Dodger ever to officially have a 3-RBI game at Fenway Park. "The Killer Tomato", Olmedo Saenz, did it with a two-run homer and a bases-loaded HBP on June 12, 2004. (Asterisk: Bill Zimmerman has been retroactively credited with doing it on April 21, 1915, before RBIs were kept by the leagues. At Fenway, you say? Mm-hmm. The Braves occasionally "borrowed" Fenway in case of scheduling conflicts; in this case it was because there were offseason renovations that weren't finished in time for Opening Day.)

Speaking of 3-RBI games, the real dagger in Game 1 came off the bat of Eduardo Nuñez who had been sitting around getting cold until summoned to greet Alex Wood in the bottom of the 7th. He proceeded to hit just the fifth pinch-hit 3-run homer in World Series history (there's never been a slam), the first since the Giants' Bill Bathe in 1989, and the second for Boston. The other was only Bernie Carbo's 8th-inning shot in 1975 that sent the game to extras... where Carlton Fisk waved it off. (The others were by the Indians' Hank Majeski and the Giants' Dusty Rhodes, in the same series in 1954.) And oh by the way, one of those runners ahead of Nuñez's dinger? Why, it's Andrew Benintendi again. He joined Jacoby Ellsbury (2007 Game 3) and Wally Moses (1946 Game 4) as the only Sawx batters with a 4-hit game in the World Series. And the only other player, for any team, with 4 hits and 3 runs scored in a World Series Game 1 was Pablo Sandoval, in his 3-homer game for the Giants in 2012.

If you live on Boston's north shore and want to get to Fenway Park, you might begin at the Wonderland subway station, named for a 1910-era amusement park turned greyhound track that sat right next to the station until Massachusetts banned dog racing in 2010. Now you can't even catch a Greyhound bus there, but you can take city bus #117 which will drop you in the North End if you'd prefer some fine dining and a leisurely walk across Boston Common to get to the game. Although apparently it's way too cold for that.

(Sidebar since we looked it up: The also-now-closed Hollywood Park horse track happens to be served by Los Angeles city bus #117 as well. But it's not about them.)

Appropriately for the 47-degree gametime temperature, David Freese would be the only one of the game's first eleven batters to reach base, but Xander Bogaerts began the flagging down of #117 with a 2nd-inning double. Ian Kinsler singled him home, but then got nailed at third base to end the inning. Freese thawed out the Dodgers offense in the 4th against David Price; with three singles, a walk, and a sacrifice fly, Los Angeles suddenly had a 2-1 lead and we wondered if this series might get to seven games after all.

Like Kershaw before him, Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up baserunners in the 5th and Dave Roberts (or his "numbers") decided it was time for him to leave. After Ryan Madson allowed two inherited runners to score yesterday, certainly the law of averages says that today he has to be able to-- mm, yeah, no, he didn't. He issued a five-pitch walk to Steve Pearce to tie the game, again functionally (though not statistically) blowing the save, and then Game 2's big dagger came in the form of J.D. Martinez's bases-loaded single. Those two runs made J.D. just the fifth Red Sox batter with multiple RBIs in consecutive World Series games, joining David Ortiz (2013), Mark Bellhorn (2004), and Dwight Evans (both 1975 and 1986).

The walk, meanwhle, was the second of the game-tying variety in both teams' postseason histories; while Manny Ramirez did play for both teams, he's on only one side of this note. He drew the only one for Boston (from The Pitcher Formerly Known As Fausto Carmona) in Game 2 of the 2007 ALCS, while Burt Hooton issued the Dodgers' only such walk, to Philadelphia's Bake McBride in the 1977 NLCS. And by allowing all three inherited runners to score, Madson joined a dubious list of Dodger pitchers to do that in a World Series. The others are Russ Meyer, who allowed a grand slam to Mickey Mantle in 1953 Game 5, and Billy Loes, who did it in Game 2 the prior year. Only three other pitchers had allowed a total of five inherited runners to score in a single World Series, which Madson managed to do in two games (we know; wait for it). That list is Oakland's Darold Knowles in 1973, Clem Labine of the 1960 Pirates, and Rosy Ryan for the Giants in 1923.

The teams would combine for only one baserunner after that, a Mookie Betts double in the 7th, which also means those three hits off David Price in the 4th wound up being L.A.'s only hits in the entire game. The previous World Series road game where the Dodgers collected no more than three hits... was the game where they didn't get any, Don Larsen's PG for the Yankees in 1956. And incredibly, it had been 20 years since the Dodgers had any game where they were held to three singles but still managed to score two runs; it last happened September 10, 1998, in San Diego. The Rockies and Orioles are now the only two teams not to pull it off in this century.


Trivia Time

There's a lot of talk about "metrics" these days, but back in the 1970s the United States tried to officially convert to the metric system. It, um, hasn't gone well. (To wit: Who's in favor of "moving" the pitcher's mound to 18.44 meters?) There's actually still a government office in charge of this endeavor; it employs exactly two people. But there are still two roads in the U.S. that have their exits signed in kilometers. One is about a seven-hour drive from Dodger Stadium and the other is about a seven-hour drive from Fenway Park. Go.

One eighteen was in the cards on Friday night, but not "won '18". At least not in a sweep. The eighteen in question, as you probably know now that you've emerged from your nap, was the number of exhausting innings we had to wait before Max Muncy finally sent the Dodger Stadium crowd away at 12:30 am to go sit in their cars for another two hours.

You're forgiven if you don't remember this one as being a fairly decent pitchers' duel at the beginning; Walker Buehler fanned seven and gave up just two hits, while the only damage against Rick Porcello was a solo homer by Joc Pederson in the 3rd. But when Yasmani Grandal found his way into a leadoff single in the 5th, well, we know by now what that means. Alex Cora channelled his inner Dave Roberts and Porcello must also get taken out before finishing the 5th. All told this postseason there were 66 starting pitchers and only 31 of them were allowed to get through five frames. The only postseason with a higher percentage of such a thing was 1947, whose World Series featured slugfests of 10-3, 9-8, and 8-6 where a bunch of starters got rocked and only four of the 14 made it to the 6th. (Last year, at 33 out of 76, comes in third now.)

Buehler's day was finally sealed when Roberts summoned Matt Kemp to pinch-hit for him in the 7th; he ended up becoming the fifth pitcher in World Series history to go at least 7 innings and allow no more than two baserunners. The previous one-- and the only other one to get a no-decision-- was another Dodger, Rick Rhoden, who did it in relief in 1977 Game 4 after the Yankees jumped on Doug Rau for three early runs. The others all threw shutout wins: Boston's Jim Lonborg in 1967 Game 2, Claude Passeau for the Cubs in 1945 Game 3, and of course Don Larsen's perfect game.

That no-decision, of course, came courtesy of Kenley Jansen, who was supposed to get six outs-- and did, but not before giving up a tying home run to Jackie Bradley. That was Boston's first tying (not go-ahead) homer in the 8th inning of a World Series since that same Bernie Carbo blast (setting up Fisk) in 1975. And it was only the third tying or go-ahead homer the Red Sox had ever hit in the 8th or later at Dodger Stadium. The others both came when the Angels borrowed it for their first few years: Dick Stuart on June 1, 1964, and Lou Clinton on August 14, 1962.

David Price would be tapped for the 9th, having just thrown 88 pitches two days earlier in Game 2. Gary Bell (1967) and Smoky Joe Wood (1912) are the only other Red Sox pitchers to start one World Series game and then show up in relief in the next; they both did it after short starts where they got knocked around (Wood gave up six runs in 1 IP). When Cody Bellinger hit a leadoff single-- at 8:27 pm, for the record-- we had our Dodgers walkoff notes ready to go.

Bellinger, naturally, got anxious about trying to steal second, broke before Price had made a move to the plate, and easily got picked off. When Craig Kimbrel came in after a two-out walk, we thought he might do the right thing and give up a game-winner, as he so often did in the ALCS. Nope. And when Ian Kinsler managed to run into an inning-ending double play in the 10th-- already at 9:01 pm, so four outs took 34 minutes-- we just had that feeling that it's One Of Those Games. Just like the 13-inning middle game of the Dodgers' NLCS, the middle game of the World Series was that stuck-in-quicksand game where neither team was going to do anything. For a while.

Finally in the 13th, with the Red Sox now on their ninth pitcher already (remember, Porcello wasn't allowed to finish the 5th because it's 2018), Brock Holt drew a leadoff walk and then stole second. (It's now 10:06 pm.) Eduardo Nuñez then began his interesting night of requiring medical attention, tripping over Austin Barnes in the batter's box, but also drawing a wild throw from Scott Alexander to score Holt and cue up the "3-0 series lead" notes. The Bill Buckner play from 1986 got mentioned a lot right around now, but that was a straight error. Nuñez's ball was only the second go-ahead "single-plus-error" in extra innings in World Series history; in 1939 Game 4, Joe DiMaggio ripped a single to right that was misplayed by the Reds' Ival Goodman and turned into a "Little League home run". If the Red Sox hadn't burned all their bench players already, it's likely Nuñez would have come out, but still, that's only an insurance run at this point, and it'll only matter if-- oh. Sure enough, Sandy Leon doubles on a play that probably should have scored Nuñez, especially with two outs, but his ankle thinks otherwise and he barely makes it to third. Still all we need is a 0 in the bottom of the 13th, and the Dodgers have put up 11 of those already, what could happen.

Yasiel Puig happens. And Ian Kinsler happens. And Nuñez hurts himself again. And we have the third game in postseason history where teams traded runs in the 13th inning or later, and the first one that didn't involve the Mets (of course). They walked off in 16 against the Astros in the 1986 NLCS after trading runs in the 14th; the other game, so that we can use this link again, is the Robin Ventura "grand slam single" (note the "1" on the Braves' half of the 15th).

We'll spare you innings 14 through 17 because we don't remember them either. There were two singles and an inordinate number of weak pop-ups because, as mentioned, it's the Quicksand Game and nobody seems interested. Nuñez did hurt himself again. And Max Muncy sent a ball just to the wrong side of the foul pole in the 15th-- at 11:30 pm-- before finally sending one to the correct side exactly an hour later.

Ignoring the 18 innings and 7 hours 20 minutes, which of course no World Series game had ever come close to, it was the fourth walkoff win in Dodgers WS history and the fourth walkoff loss for the Red Sox. You can probably get several of the other six games by now: For the Dodgers it's Kirk Gibson's homer in 1988, a Jackie Robinson walkoff single in 1956, and Cookie Lavagetto breaking up Bill Bevens' no-hitter with two outs in the 9th in 1947. On the Boston side it's the Buckner play, Joe Morgan's 10th-inning single for the Reds in 1975, and the Will Middlebrooks interference play at the end of 2013 Game 3 in St Louis.

Much was made of the top four spots in the Red Sox order-- that's six total players-- going 0-for-28. But just by themselves, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts were the first pair of one/two hitters, for any team, to each go 0-for-7 since Ryan Thompson and Kevin Baez of the Mets did it in a 17-inning win over the Cardinals on September 29, 1993. The Red Sox offense hadn't struck out 19 times and lost since August 12, 1974, at Anaheim-- one of Nolan Ryan's three 19-K games that season.

And for a real throwback, it turns out there had only been five other games of 17 innings or later ever played at Dodger Stadium, and the only one that L.A. won was a 17-inning one against the Braves on May 2, 1968. That means they hadn't walked off in any game in the 18th or later since the Ebbets Field days-- and the very early Ebbets Field days at that. On August 22, 1917, they played Pittsburgh in what was, at the time, the longest game in National League history. In the bottom of the 22nd, Otto Miller hit a potential double-play ball to second, but in trying to decide whether he could get lead runner Jim Hickman at the plate, Pirates 2B Jake Pitler waited too long to make the relay throw and Miller beat out the walkoff FC.

The (New York) Sun, August 23, 1917, via Library of Congress. The entire game story is a fun read (click link in this caption and zoom to the leftmost column).

Trivia hint if you're actually still thinking about the question: Remember what number the Red Sox are trying to get to.

(Eduardo Nuñez will be happy to know that 118 is the emergency number for an ambulance in Italy (that's their public-safety logo above) and many parts of Africa. It's also what you dial if you need to report a forest fire in Portugal. The more you know.)

One of two things inevitably happens after an 18-inning game until 12:30 am: Either the players are still sleepwalking and we get another 1-0 snoozefest where nobody can hit, or one/both teams find some kind of inspiration in not wanting to do that again and we end up with an 11-10 escapade. Game 4 actually brought us both. In that order.

After managing just one hit in the final five innings on Friday, the Red Sox managed just one in the first six innings on Saturday against The Rich Hill Experience, who recorded the third-longest no-hitter in Dodgers World Series history, behind Alex Wood's 5⅔ last season and Sandy Koufax for 4⅔ in the 1963 opener. The Dodgers only had two hits of their own by this point, and the most exciting thing to happen in the first five innings was that Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez got hit by a pitch. And if you're a fan of '60s Cardinal and '70s journeyman Nelson Briles, well, this is your week. When it comes to getting plunked, the only other Red Sox pitcher to do it in the postseason was Gary Wasiewski, by Briles in Game 6 in 1967. Turnabout is fair play; when the Cards also went to the Series in 1968, Briles got hit by Tigers great Mickey Lolich, making him also the last pitcher to get hit in a World Series game before E-Rod.

Finally in the 6th the Dodgers break through with a Justin Turner double and a series of unfortunate events that ends with Christian Vazquez hitting Cody Bellinger in the back as he tries to complete an inning-ending double play. Alex Cora unsuccessfully argued that Bellinger might have been out of the running lane, and before we can finish resurrecting our 1-0 notes from Friday, naturally then Yasiel Puig cranks a three-run bomb. The Dodgers have never had a grand slam in a World Series game, and of their 16 three-run jobs, the previous one at Chavez Ravine had been by Mike Marshall off Oakland's Storm Davis in 1988 Game 2.

Rich Hill, of course, has gone six innings on 82 pitches, given up only the one hit, and has a 4-0 lead, but leadoff walk to Xander Bogaerts in the 7th. You know what "the numbers" say about that. Pull him. Now. Obviously he's spent. Here, Scott Alexander, face one batter (Brock Holt) and walk him on four pitches. Here, Ryan Madson, I seem to remember something about you and inherited runners.

If you've forgotten, Madson-- as of Game 2-- was just the fourth pitcher ever to allow five inherited runners to score in the same World Series. No one had ever allowed six. And technically you could say still no one has allowed six. Because Mitch Moreland three-run homer to make Madson 7-for-7 in that department. Moreland was only the second Red Sox batter with a pinch-hit homer at Dodger Stadium, again including the Angels years. Juan Diaz took Andy Ashby deep in a regular-season interleague game on June 23, 2002. And combined with Eduardo Nuñez's shot in Game 1, it was the first time two different Sox had hit them in the same postseason (Bernie Carbo did hit two by himself in 1975). Between Moreland and Puig, Game 4 was the 10th time in World Series history where each team hit at least a 3-run homer; that 13-12 escapade in last year's Game 5 was the only other one in the past 20 seaons.

But still it's 4-3 and the Dodgers look like they might hang on and guarantee us some more frequent-flier miles back to Boston. Kenley Jansen, how are you at getting six-out saves? Oh right, yesterday. Well the law of averages says there's no way they'll hit another game-tying solo homer in the 8th.

Steve Pearce, law-breaker. Kenley Jansen, third pitcher ever to blow a save in consecutive games of the same World Series (Jeurys Familia, 2015 Mets, and Byung-Hyun Kim, 2001 Diamondbacks). Rich Hill, first starter in World Series history to allow ≤ 1 hit, ≤ 1 run, strike out 7+, and not get the win. Red Sox, first team since the 2005 White Sox (Scott Podsednik and Geoff Blum) to hit a tying or go-ahead homer in the 8th inning or later in consecutive World Series games.

Unlike Game 3, it at least appeared both offenses were awake tonight and, even if this went extras, it didn't feel like 18-inning material. Things are happening frequently enough that somebody's gonna score again. Or, in the case of the Red Sox 9th inning, everybody's gonna score again. Holt double. Rafael Devers RBI single for the lead, just the third go-ahead pinch-hit anything in the 9th or later in Red Sox postseason history (Trot Nixon in 2003 ALDS and Del Gainer in 1916 WS both hit walkoffs). But Craig Kimbrel is warming up and it's still only 5-4, so maybe let's not strand that insurance run at third base this time. Oh hey, Steve Pearce is back. Bases-clearing double and out come the "3-1 series lead" notes. Only two other players have ever hit a three-run double in the 9th or later of a World Series game, Lorenzo Cain for the Royals in 2015 (Game 5), and then-Cardinal Terry Pendleton against the Royals in 1985 (Game 2). Adding in the 8th-inning homer gives Pearce 4 RBI, joining Shane Victorino (2013 Game 6), David Ortiz (2004 Game 1), and Carl Yastrzemski (1967 Game 2) as the only Red Sox batters to do that in a World Series contest.

As predicted, the Dodgers did get two back in the 9th off Kimbrel, so had Pearce not upped the ante, Enrique Hernandez's home run could very well have been another walkoff (and blown save). Obviously there are more rounds and more games now, but Kimbrel is the first pitcher ever to finish five games in the same postseason and give up a run in all of them.

And Justin Turner ended the game on second base after his third hit of the evening. He also had three hits in the Game 1 loss back at Fenway; only one other Dodgers batter has had multiple 3-hit games in the same World Series, Roy Campanella in 1955. And only six other players have ever done it in two losses in the same Series, the previous being Detroit's Sean Casey in 2006. The rest of that list is Mariano Duncan (1993 Phillies), Thurman Munson (1976 Yankees), Nellie Fox (1969 White Sox), Joe Marty (1938 Cubs), and Joe Judge (1924 Senators).

By the time Game 5 rolled around on Sunday, with the Red Sox riding the momentum again, and the Dodgers' only win requiring the equivalent of two games to get, it seemed like the question wasn't if the Red Sox would get that last victory, it was when. Steve Pearce, he of the tying homer and three-run double last night, apparently wasn't told that Game 4 was over, because he raked Clayton Kershaw's sixth pitch into the seats for a 2-0 lead. That made him the third player in Red Sox history to homer in back-to-back games of the same World Series, joining David Ortiz in 2013 and Larry Gardner in 1916. It was the first multi-run homer the Sox had ever hit in the 1st inning of a World Series road game, and their third 1st-inning homer at Dodger Stadium. Jonny Gomes (off Game 2 starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, but in 2013) and Frank Malzone (1965 off the Angels' George Brunet) had the others. And only one other Red Sox batter had ever homered in consecutive games at Dodger Stadium, in any inning: Jim Pagliaroni against the Angels on July 6 and 7, 1962.

Ah, but not so fast. After that cold midweek weather in Boston, David Freese has thawed out again. And David Price left him some high heat on the first pitch, which Freese then left in the right-field bleachers to instantly cut the lead in half. You may recall that Freese hit a leadoff homer in Game 6 of the NLCS in Milwaukee; he joins Jimmy Rollins (2008) and Angel Pagán (2012) as the only batters to hit two in the same postseason. Combined with Joc Pederson's in the Division Series, the Dodgers are also the first team to hit three in a single postseason (although of course there are more games now).

Now that we have the potential elimination game jitters over with, both pitchers settled down and combined for just four baserunners over the next five innings. One of those did happen to be a David Freese "triple", quotation marks because J.D. Martinez lost it in the setting sun and threw up his hands before watching it bounce behind him. It made Freese the 17th player in World Series history to homer and triple in the same game, or not, if you consider that he was already on that list. The David Freese Game™ from 2011 is remembered for his walkoff homer, but he also had a three-bagger in that one; the only other repeat among the 17 games is Paul Molitor, who did it twice in the 1993 Series with Toronto. Since you already know how this ends, Freese would also be the first Dodger to homer and triple in a loss at Chavez Ravine since Rafael Furcal did it against the Pirates on September 19, 2006.

Alas, the next two Dodgers could do nothing to score Freese, and one of those other baserunners we mentioned was a Mookie Betts homer to make it 3-1 in the 6th. In an interesting reversal from the rest of the series, Dave Roberts left Kershaw out there for the 7th, which promptly began with a homer by Martinez, and now they can smell it. Kershaw became just the fifth pitcher to allow three homers in a potential World Series-losing game, the previous being Charles Hudson of the Phillies in 1983. Back in Boston the police are closing down Kenmore Square and rerouting your 117 city bus (not true, the 117 doesn't go there, but other ones for sure) as David Price proceeds to retire 14 Dodgers in a row following that Freese triple.

And the ultimate icing on the champagne bottle (mixed-metaphor alert!)? That would be Steve Pearce one more time. Another solo blast in the 8th to join Shea Hillenbrand (June 21, 2002) as the only Red Sox batters with a multi-homer game at Dodger Stadium, and the first with two homers in a World Series clincher since Kirk Gibson did it-- no, not in that game, but in 1984 Game 5 at Tiger Stadium to finish off the Padres. It also marked the first time the Red Sox had ever hit four homers in a game at Chavez Ravine, and the second time they'd ever done that in any World Series game (1967 Game 6 vs Cardinals.

We had to get one last #bullpenning moment in, this one being when Price issued another of those leadoff walks in the 8th. At one point the Red Sox bullpen had three pitchers trying to warm up and only two mounds. In the end Joe Kelly and Chris Sale were deployed for the 8th and 9th respectively; they each faced three batters and struck out all of them. The Dodgers thus became the first team in postseason history to end a series with K's for their last six outs (not necessarily consecutive batters, just at all), and in Kelly's case in the 8th, all three were by pinch hitters. There'd been only one other half-inning in World Series history with three pinch-hit K's; that was in the 1944 all-St Louis series when Milt Byrne, Chet Laabs, and Mike Chartak of the Browns whiffed against Mort Cooper of the Cardinals in the 9th.

And only the opposing uniforms would make the final scene of the 2018 season different from the final scene of 2017. The venue, Dodger Stadium. The score, 5-1. The only other time both were repeated, it was with the same opponent: The Cubs won both the 1907 and 1908 titles at Bennett Park in Detroit by identical 2-0 counts. The Pirates also celebrated their 1909 title at Bennett Park (maybe this is why it got torn down by 1912?); the only other time the same stadium saw a visiting team hoist the trophy in consecutive years was at the Polo Grounds in 1936 and 1937 (both by their former co-tenants, the Yankees). The Yankees also lost their claim of being the last stadium to see the title won in consecutive years, by either team; the Reds won their 1976 title in the Bronx, and then Reggie Jackson's '77 squad won theirs at home against these same Dodgers.


Trivia Time
Figure it out? The only Interstate that's numbered in kilometers is the one that connects Tucson, Ariz., to the Mexican border at Nogales, Interstate 19. The odd one on the east coast is State Route 1 in Delaware; both roads were built in the late 1970s during the aforementioned attempt to change to the metric system. But that's 1. And 19.

Can Boston be number 1 again in '19? We are 142 days away from beginning a brand new journey of finding out. But they've got a good head start: As an original member of the American League from 1901, next season... is the team's 119th. Find some wall space.


A Hearty Thanks
We do not credit them enough, but the incredible Baseball Reference Play Index is an indispensable tool for many of our notes, and it can be yours too for only $3 a month. Much of its historical info is based on the tireless efforts of Retrosheet and the Society for American Baseball Research, and we've had some help from Stats LLC, Elias, ESPN, KillerSports.com, and a few other sites and databases along the way.

And thanks to you for reading and following and tweeting throughout the season. We might post some fun stuff during the winter, so check back occasionally, but for now we're going to nap for a couple weeks. ☺



Images 115, 116, and 119 from Google Street View. Detour sign from U.S. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

A Tale Of Two Series

In which the Dodgers were supposed to hit four homers every game. In which the Astros pitchers were supposed to strike out every batter they faced. In which David Price was supposed to be bad and Craig Kimbrel was supposed to be good.

Oh yeah. It's October.


Jumps: ▼ NLCS1-2 ... ALCS1-2 ... NLCS3-5 ... ALCS3-5 ... NLCS6-7


Pitchers Who Rake

We begin in Milwaukee, where the Brewers are hosting a team from Los Angeles in the 1982 American League Championship Series, er, whoops, we mean the 2018 National League Championship Series. (Brewers/Angels really was the 1982 ALCS, and spoiler alert, longtime NL stalwart Houston is in the AL series this year. Confused yet?) Lorenzo Cain recorded the Brewers' first-ever base hit to lead off a postseason series, but got stranded at second. Manny Machado, meanwhile, picked up where he left off in the Division Series, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead with a 2nd-inning homer. Only other one Dodger had homered in the last game of one postseason series and the first game of the next; that was Carl Furillo, and it took him three seasons (1953 WS 6 and 1955 WS 1).

With #bullpenning all the rage now, Gio Gonzalez got lifted after only 2 innings, the third-shortest "start" of his career (in the two that were shorter, he gave up six runs), and on trots Brandon Woodruff. Whose pitching was certainly adequate (he struck out four and was awarded the win), but when you're going to make seven pitching changes, you can't be burning a pinch hitter every time. Some of these "relievers" are gonna have to bat for themselves. And of course you know what that meant. Only three relievers have ever hit a postseason home run; the others are Travis Wood for the Cubs two years ago, and Rosy Ryan of the Giants in 1924. You might also remember that Woodruff homered July 13 in Pittsburgh; he joins Yovani Gallardo (three times), Scott Karl (1999), and Fred Talbot (1969) as the only Brewers/Pilots pitchers with two in a season.

If giving up a postseason homer to a relief pitcher represents one wheel falling off, then Yasmani Grandal is the lug wrench who loosened the other three. Later in the same inning, Grandal was changed with his second passed ball of the game; two pitches after that, with a catcher's interference against Jesús Aguilar, and three pitches after that, with a missed catch error that allowed Christian Yelich to go second-to-third on a sac fly. He's the first catcher ever to commit two passed balls and two errors in a postseason game (the CI counts as an E2 for scoring purposes), and would later tie the record for a postseason series with a third PB. When Chris Taylor and Justin Turner made fielding miscues later in Game 1, it was the first time in five years (June 19, 2013, at Yankees) that the Dodgers had committed four errors in a road game.

Cain and Aguilar weren't done either. Deciding that he didn't want a CI to be the most interesting note about him, Aguilar homered in the 7th for what would end up being the game-winning run. Like Machado, he also homered in the last game of their Division Series, just the fourth Brewers player to go yard in back-to-back postseason games (Prince Fielder, Ted Simmons, Paul Molitor). And Cain would go on to reach base three more times, joining Molitor and Mike Cameron (2008) as the only Brewers leadoff hitters to reach 4x in a postseason game.

Taylor redeemed himself with a 9th-inning RBI triple that got caught between Cain and the wall, but Turner promptly ended the game with his fourth strikeout of the day. Since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958, only one other Dodger has had 4+ strikeouts in a 1-run loss and been the one to end it: Frank Howard at Houston on June 3, 1963.


Turner-ound Of Events

It is still a seven-game series, though, and after having all night to think about his error and game-ending strikeout, Justin Turner redeemed himself on Saturday. With the Dodgers trailing 3-2 and Taylor having beaten out an infield single to start the 8th, Turner blasted a homer to left to flip the lead and knock Jeremy Jeffress out of yet another game. Milwaukee did have a baserunner in both the 8th and 9th, but Kenley Jansen shut them down to even the series. Turner's shot was just the third homer in Dodgers postseason history to flip a lead in the 7th inning or later. Juan Uribe hit one in the 2013 Division Series against Atlanta, and since we must include this link in every post, yes, Kirk Gibson did it. Their only such homer in the regular season this year was by Matt Kemp off Archie Bradley of the Diamondbacks on September 1.

Wade Miley made an actual traditional "start" in Game 2, throwing 5⅔ shutout innings and allowing just two baserunners (both singles). He was the first Brewers pitcher in four years-- and first ever in postseason-- to do that and not get the win; Matt Garza saw the bullpen blow a lead at St Louis on August 3, 2014. But like Woodruff before him, it was Miley's presence at the plate that was more notable. He doubled in the 3rd, then singled and ended up scoring a run in the 5th. Not surprisingly, he's the first Brewers pitcher ever to have multiple hits in a postseason game. The last pitcher for any postseason team with two hits, at least one being for extra bases, and a run scored was Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins in the 2003 Division Series. And only one other team in the past 40 years has had multiple pitchers record an XBH in the same postseason series; that was when Wood (as mentioned above) and Jake Arrieta both homered for the Cubs two seasons ago. Prior that it hadn't been done since the 1974 Athletics.


Travel Day To Los Angeles

Jumps: NLCS1-2 ... ▼ ALCS1-2 ... NLCS3-5 ... ALCS3-5 ... NLCS6-7


Spring-er Cleaning

Meanwhile, we promised to confuse you with Houston being not in the National League Championship Series, but in the American. Houston and Boston did, of course, both have NL teams at one time, just not at the same time. The Boston NL team moved to Milwaukee, where it is not currently playing Los Angeles in the NLCS; it's since moved to Atlanta and actually played Los Angeles in the Division Series, while the current Boston team will be playing Los Angeles in the World Series. Got it? Good.

There's nothing tremendously interesting about a leadoff walk, except when it gets issued to George Springer. It's probably better than a homer, which he's been known to hit on a few occasions. But in last year's ALCS against the Yankees, Springer also started Game 1 by drawing a walk; he thus becomes just the second player to lead off the same series with a base-on-balls in consecutive seasons. Kenny Lofton did it in the NLCS in both 2002 and 2003.

Springer, however, would be retired just one batter later when Jose Altuve grounded into a forceout at second. The next batter, Alex Bregman, sent a liner to right and Altuve, now still representing Springer for scoring purposes, had to hold up to see if Mookie Betts caught it. After a replay review it was upheld, making Mookie and Xander Bogaerts the second 9-6 forceout in Red Sox postseason history. The other was Dwight Evans to Spike Owen in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series; the unfortunate side effect of that play was that Wally Backman was on third and scored on that play to tie the game (of course, the Mets eventually won). In the bottom of the 1st, Mookie would join Jose Offerman (1999) and Wade Boggs (1988) as the only Red Sox hitters to begin an ALCS with a leadoff base hit.

Springer would drive in the game's first two runs with a 2nd-inning single, but it looked promising for the Sawx in the 5th when Justin Verlander walked three straight hitters, the last of whom (Mitch Moreland) served to drive in a run. Moreland was the 11th pinch hitter in Red Sox postseason history to have a bases-loaded plate appearance, and while he didn't have a hit, he was the first to not make an out. Five pitches later, the game was tied when Verlander uncorked a wild pitch to score Jackie Bradley from third. Game 1 was the first outing of Verlander's career where he both walked in a run and wild-pitched in a run.

Ultimately, though, the Red Sox would limp to the finish line when Brandon Workman gave up a solo homer to Josh Reddick in the 9th, walked Altuve and Bregman, and then surrendered another homer to Yuli Gurriel for the final 7-2 margin. All told Boston's pitching staff walked 10 batters and hit three more; the only other team in postseason to history to even get to 8 and 3 was the 1999 Mets, and their eighth walk just happened to be a pennant-winner to Andruw Jones. All those free passes also resulted in the Astros being just the second team in postseason history to score 7+ runs on ≤ 5 hits. The 1939 Yankees did that in Cincinnati in Game 3 of the World Series, benefitting from five walks and four home runs.


Saw The Price, I'll Pass

To the victor go the spoils, however, and the Red Sox would come back to spoil Houston's Game 1 win (and then some, but we'll get there). After a one-base hit to start Game 1, Mookie Betts said, why not a two-base hit to start Game 2. It was the ninth leadoff double in Red Sox postseason history, but it also made him the first Bostonian ever to have a leadoff hit in Games 1 and 2 of the same postseason series (26th for any team overall). It, of course, escalated quickly. Andrew Benintendi promptly singled in Betts, and the Sawx would add another run after Gerrit Cole airmailed a ground ball later in the inning.

Springer would promptly tie things back up with a two-run double in the 2nd, giving him the longest postseason hitting streak in Astros history (11 games, topping Lance Berkman), and becoming the first Houstonian to have multiple RBIs in three straight postseason games. The last for any team was the Dodgers' Juan Uribe in 2013, and the only player to do it in four straight (spoiler alert, Springer did not) is Reggie Sanders for the 2005 Cardinals. After Marwin Gonzalez's homer gave the Astros another brief lead, the Red Sox piled it on in the 3rd when Jackie Bradley unloaded a three-run double. David Ortiz, in the 2003 ALDS against Oakland, had Boston's only other postseason double that flipped a lead. And for a few minutes, it looked like David Price might finally be breaking his postseason curse. And then.

With one out in the 5th, he walked Alex Bregman, which isn't too surprising. Bregman got three free passes in Game 1 as well, and would end up becoming the second player in postseason history with three walks in back-to-back games. And the other wasn't Barry Bonds or David Ortiz or even Babe Ruth. It was Jimmy Sheckard of the Cubs in 1910. The last Astros batter even to do it in the regular season was Morgan Ensberg in August 2006. But two batters later it was the four-pitch walk to Tyler White, with a one-run lead, that finally made Alex Cora pull the plug-- one out shy of letting price qualify for his first postseason win in 11 tries.

Meanwhile, no one really expected Gerrit Cole to duplicate his 12-K, 0-BB performance from the Division Series, but they probably didn't expect him to give up five runs either. He ended up being the third pitcher in Astros postseason history to give up 5+ runs but also strike out 5+ opposing batters, and the others are both Nolan Ryan. No sooner had Cole been lifted in the 7th than Martin Maldonado decided to channel his inner Yasmani Grandal and commit two passed balls to score Mookie Betts from second. Brad Ausmus, in 1997, is the only other Astros catcher to allow a run-scoring PB (Atlanta's Fred McGriff was the runner), and that run would turn out to be just a little important. Because in for the 9th comes Craig Kimbrel, tasked with holding a three-run lead in his first appearance since ALDS Game 4... when he was handed a three-run lead and gave up two hits, a walk, a sac fly, two runs, and hit a batter before escaping with a 4-3 series-clinching win. The good news is that this time he got two outs before starting to melt down. Then Springer connected for another double, making he and Betts the first opposing leadoff batters ever to hit multiple two-baggers in the same postseason game. Kimbrel uncorked a wild pitch to move Springer to third, and Altuve singled to score him, before Bregman-- in a rare instance of putting a ball in play-- sent a deep fly ball to left to end the threat. That made the final score 7-5 and made Kimbrel the first pitcher ever to record three saves in the same postseason where he gave up at least one run. (Another spoiler: He's not done.)


Travel Day To Houston

Jumps: NLCS1-2 ... ALCS1-2 ... ▼ NLCS3-5 ... ALCS3-5 ... NLCS6-7


Working 9 To 6

Walker Buehler is another of those rising stars who's actually given us more no-hitter scares this year than Clayton Kershaw. He did start the one the Dodgers threw against the Padres in May, although the days of the solo nine-inning no-hitter may be quickly dwindling. So imagine our surprise when Ryan Braun connected for a 1st-inning RBI double after Christian Yelich drew a one-out walk. That's not to say Buehler wasn't still doing his usual strikeout thing; he and Jhoulys Chacin combined to record nine of the first 12 outs via K, just the sixth such game in postseason history (not shockingly, all have been since 2000). And that Yelich/Braun run in the 1st would turn out to be all the Brewers needed in Game 3 (though not all they'd get). Despite the Dodgers getting runners to second several times (including a Grandal leadoff double in the 5th), they never broke through against Chacin or Corey Knebel, who retired all five batters he faced following that Grandal hit.

Meanwhile, despite seven early strikeouts, Buehler would end up wild-pitching in another run and giving up a two-run homer to Orlando Arcia to put things away. He ended up surrendering a team cycle (HR, 3B, 2B, 1B), the seventh pitcher in Dodgers postseason history to do that (Hiroki Kuroda in 2009 last), but the first to also fan seven opponents. Arcia had also homered in Game 2, adding his name to that list from earlier as the fifth Brewer (Aguilar was the fourth) to go yard in back-to-back postseason games.

The Brewers might have had more, but since this is The Year Of The 9-6 Forceout, guess what Ryan Braun managed to do. Again. After hitting into the first 3-9-6 force since 1986, he ended up with another one in Game 3 when Christian Yelich broke the wrong direction thinking Yasiel Puig was going to have an easy catch but he instead let it bounce. The Game 3 final of 4-0 turns out to be the first time the Dodgers were shut out at home in any postseason game since Mike Schmidt's 1st-inning homer held up for 1-0 Phillies win in the opener of the 1983 NLCS.


Zero Hour

Perhaps Game 3 should have given us a clue about lack of scoring. Again, we all thought it was going to be Chris Sale, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and David Price mowing everyone down and generating some 2-1 scores. Ah, October. Chris Taylor drew a leadoff walk in Game 4 and scored later in the inning on a Brian Dozier single. Okay, good. And then we'll all basically sit around for about 4½ hours. The Brewers didn't have a hit off Rich Hill until the 4th (and we thought Buehler was gonna do that yesterday), while Gio Gonzalez took a comebacker off his ankle in the 2nd inning and thus made the only start of his career where he recorded zero strikeouts. Freddy Peralta earned the [insert car dealership here] player of the game award by throwing three hitless innings in relief and striking out six, just the fourth player in Brewers history to do that, and second for any team in the postseason (Pedro Martinez fired the final six innings of Boston's 1999 ALDS clincher against Cleveland). Peralta's spot came up in the 5th with Arcia sitting on first base, so perfect spot for Domingo Santana to launch a game-tying double, the first extra-base pinch hit in Brewers postseason history. And then we sit some more.

It got interesting in the 8th when the Dodgers finally had two hits but Matt Kemp struck out to end the inning. And it got really interesting in the 10th when Manny Machado got involved in his second controversial play in as many days. But from innings 9 through 12 there were only three balls out of the infield (and one base hit between the two teams combined). And sure, if your starters are Rich Hill and Gio Gonzalez, a 1-1 game seems reasonable-- except they were both gone by the 5th. This was that "fatigue" game, the middle one in a seven-game series, which drags on for over 5 hours until Junior Guerra, in his fourth inning of work, finally gives up a Machado single, wild-pitches him to second, and then Cody Bellinger plays hero and sends everyone out to sit in traffic for another 90 minutes. The Dodgers had never walked off in a postseason game later than the 10th inning, and they've only ever had two of those: Bill Russell's pennant-winning single in 1978 (scoring Ron Cey), and Jackie Robinson's single to force a Game 7 in the 1956 World Series against the Yankees.

Bellinger, who had pinch-hit in the 6th back when nobody thought this game would last over 5 hours, became the first Dodgers batter with two hits, including a walkoff, in a game he didn't start since Rick Parker did that against the Marlins on July 30, 1996. And the Dodgers scored their two runs in the 1st and the 13th and ended up winning. If that sounds familiar, it's because the Rockies did it two weeks ago in the Wild Card game. After it happened once in the previous 113 postseasons.

Hopped Off The Plane At LAX

Okay, after 13 innings of snoozeball until 11:25 pm, let's turn right around and play a 2:00 game the next afternoon. That's better than the teams that have a bunch of rain delays the night before a 12:35 start (looking at you, Reds and Nationals), but those also aren't in the postseason. Game 5 was, of course, the game where Craig Counsell "tricked" everyone by announcing Wade Miley as the starter, forcing the Dodgers to set their lineup with a bunch of right-handers, before pulling him after one batter. It's not unprecedented (we've mentioned before that it was done in a doubleheader as early as 1971), and Counsell made no apologies. That might be partly because it didn't work. Miley walked the one hitter he's required by rule to face, making him the first postseason "starter" to record 0 outs since Al Leiter of the Mets gave up five runs to the Braves in the 1999 NLCS (that's the game from above that ended on Andruw Jones' walk). The last Brewers starter to record 0 outs in a game was Zack Greinke, who on July 7, 2012, couldn't quite beat Jose Altuve to first base, spiked the baseball in frustration, and got ejected for it.

Intended starter Brandon Woodruff did strike out eight Dodgers, but finally got into trouble in the 6th when Justin Turner singled, he hit Manny Machado (hmmmm), and both of them later scored. Los Angeles added two more in the 7th off Joakim Soria for a 5-2 win, also making Woodruff the first "reliever" in postseason history to strike out 8+ batters but eat a loss. On the other side, Clayton Kershaw allowed only three hits and struck out nine, his third time doing that in a postseason game. All other Dodgers pitchers have done it twice, and those two were only Sandy Koufax (1965) and Don Drsydale (1963). He also joined Drysdale and Derek Lowe (2008 NLDS 1) as the only Dodgers pitchers to draw two walks as a batter in a postseason game.

And about those five pitches that Miley threw. Considering he went through the façade of the regular warmup routine and probably threw about 20 or so more-- and there's an off-day tomorrow-- and he would normally throw the proverbial "side session" two days before a normal start-- well, spoiler alert.


Travel Day To Milwaukee

Jumps: NLCS1-2 ... ALCS1-2 ... NLCS3-5 ... ▼ ALCS3-5 ... NLCS6-7


Slammed In Houston

Over in the American League, we have arrived at Minute Maid Park with the series tied at 1-1 and our return trip to Boston booked just as long as one team doesn't sweep all three games. Uh, yeah, about that.

The Red Sox wasted no time in Game 3, smacking Dallas Keuchel around for three hits and two runs in the 1st. Mookie Betts, who you might remember singled in Game 1 and doubled in Game 2-- well, no, he didn't triple in Game 3, but he did become the fifth player ever to lead off the first three games of a postseason series with base hits. Alcides Escobar did it in 2015 (his inside-the-park homer is still disputed), as well as Ray Durham (2003), Fernando Viña (2000), and Hank Bauer (1958). It was only the third postseason game where the Sawx had opened with three straight hits; Betts, Andrew Benintendi, and J.D. Martinez joined the 1998 trio of Darren Lewis, John Valentin, and Mo Vaughn (ALDS 1); and the 1988 top-three of Wade Boggs, Ellis Burks, and Marty Barrett (ALCS 3).

The Astros collected three hits (though not in order) in their half of the 1st off Nathan Eovaldi, but after that things settled down for a while. Alex Bregman, in one of the rare times Boston pitched to him, tied the game with a 5th-inning double, but Steve Pearce promptly untied it with a solo homer in the 6th. Then it got weird.

Roberto Osuna, suspended 75 games this year by MLB for a domestic-violence incident and traded to the Astros during said suspension, gets two outs in the 8th but also gives up two singles. After a Sawx challenge, he is judged by replay to have hit Brock Holt to load the bases. He then proceeds to hit the next batter, Mitch Moreland, the first bases-loaded HBP in Red Sox postseason history, and their first by a pinch hitter since Daniel Nava against the Angels on August 18, 2010. Only A.J. Burnett (2009), Felix Heredia (2004), and Detroit'd Ed Willett (1909) had hit back-to-back batters in any postseason game. Holt was also pinch-hitting, making he and Moreland the first Boston teammates in (at least) the live-ball era with PH HBP's in the same game. Then it got weird(er).

Moreland is replaced by pinch runner Sandy Leon, even though that run doesn't really mean anything, and heck, Moreland could have made it 270 feet at a light jog when, three pitches later, Jackie Bradley hits the sixth grand slam in Red Sox postseason history, and the team's first one ever (regular season or post) against the Astros. And remember Bradley had that three-run double in Game 2. No number-9 hitter, for any team, had ever had consecutive 3-RBI games in the same postseason, and the last Bostonian to do it in the regular season was Lee Tinsley against the Tigers in June 1996. And "JBJ" loves it down there at the bottom; Tuesday was his sixth career 4-RBI game out of the 9-hole, tied with Kevin Elster (1986-2000) and Tom Brookens (1979-1990) for the most since it became an official stat in 1920.


Release The Kimbrel

Mookie Betts finally failed to get a hit to lead off Game 4. Instead he got hit, the first leadoff HBP in Red Sox postseason history, and the sixth player to reach base as the leadoff hitter in the first four games of a series. (Alcides Escobar in 2015 was once again the last. Ichiro in 2001, Rickey Henderson in 1993, Stan Hack in 1938, and Roger Bresnahan in 1905 are the others.) After a walk to J.D. Martinez, Rafael Devers quickly made it 2-0 before the most controversial play of the series happened in the bottom of the 1st. So it was easy to not notice that Charlie Morton gave up another run in the 3rd and got pulled in favor of Josh James; Morton was the first Astros starter to throw two wild pitches and hit a batter (Betts) without getting through the 3rd since Darryl Kile gave up nine runs to the Giants on June 13, 1996.

After Josh Reddick re-tied the game in the 3rd, Tony Kemp gave the Astros a brief lead with a 4th-inning homer. Xander Bogaerts took care of that with an RBI single in T5. Carlos Correa took that lead back with his own single in B5. Last night's grand-slam hero, Jackie Bradley, flips the lead again in the 6th with a two-run homer. If this is reminding you of last year's Astros title game that ended 13-12, it should; that was the last postseason game with this many lead changes. But the last game with four of them before the 6th inning was way back in 2011; it's WS Game 6 between the Cardinals and Rangers, commonly known as The David Freese Game. After the grand slam in Game 3, Bradley became the first player in postseason history to hit 9th in back-to-back games and have a multi-run homer in both. No Red Sock had done it in the regular season since Alex Gonzalez against the Mets in June 2006.

That Bradley homer hangs onto the lead for Boston until the 8th inning, when it's 8-5 and have we learned nothing about handing Craig Kimbrel a 3-run lead? He did get a six-out save, the first for a Sawx pitcher (non-3-IP category) since Vicente Padilla got seven outs at Kansas City on May 7, 2012. But it took Kimbrel 11 batters, two hits, a hit-by-pitch, a stolen base, three walks, Tony Kemp running into an out, and an amazing Andrew Benintendi dive to make it happen. No Boston pitcher had gotten a save of under 3 IP while facing 11 batters since Tim Wakefield escaped the Yankees on August 1, 1999. And if you've lost count by now, it's the fourth time this postseason that Kimbrel has "earned" a save despite allowing at least one run. Only one other pitcher has done that four times in postseason history-- of course it's Mariano Rivera, but his came in four different years!

Josh James, who gave up three earned runs including that Bradley homer, ended up taking the loss despite recording five strikeouts. Only one other reliever in Astros history had posted that line, Joe Niekro against Pittsburgh on August 13, 1976. And Tony Kemp became the first #9 batter in Astros history (regular or post) to reach base four times in a loss.


They Say It's Your Birthday

Finally in Game 5 the stars aligned correctly and a game more-or-less played out the way it was supposed to. Justin Verlander against David Price to determine whether only one team would be headed to Boston or both of them would. (Also, how much champagne some Texas distributor would have to return.) J.D. Martinez took Verlander deep in the 3rd for a 1-0 lead, his 17th go-ahead homer (any inning) this year. That's the most for the Red Sox since David Ortiz hit 22 of them in 2006 (Papi also had 16 each in 2007, 2010, and 2016). Price, meanwhile, rolled along as if this were a regular-season game, striking out a total of nine and giving up just three hits. Finally Rafael Devers-- who will turn 22 on Wednesday-- delivered the big blow with a three-run homer in the 6th. The only player younger than Devers to hit a 3- or 4-run homer in a potential series-clincher was 20-year-old Miguel Cabrera for the Marlins in 2003 NLCS 7 against the Cubs. That was enough to effectively knock Verlander out of the game and also finally put David Price in line for that first-ever postseason win. Oddly, Price became the first postseason pitcher with 0 runs, 3 baserunners, and 9+ strikeouts since Verlander did it for the Tigers in 2013.

Matt Barnes gives up a solo homer to Marwin Gonzalez, and here's your 3-run lead again. For our specialist in 3-run leads, Craig Kimbrel. A four-pitch walk to Yuli Gurriel soon follows, and here we go again. But for once Kimbrel got the last two outs, including a fairly routine fly ball to Andrew Benintendi this time, and the Sawx became the fourth visiting team to win a pennant in Houston (1986 Mets, 1980 Phillies, 1968 Cardinals).

Price joined Jake Arrieta (2015 WC game) and Cole Hamels (2010 NLDS 3) as the only pitchers to allow 0 runs, 0 walks, strike out 9, and get the win in a postseason clincher. Devers became the sixth Red Sock to have a homer and 3 RBI in a pennant-clinching game (regular season or post), and as mentioned, he turns 22 on Wednesday-- the scheduled date for Game 2 of the World Series. Assuming he plays in that game, he would be the third to make a WS appearance on his 22nd birthday, joining Cleveland's Joe Sewell (October 9, 1920) and Detroit's Donie Bush (October 8, 1909). No one's ever appeared in a World Series on a birthday younger than 22.

And speaking of birthdays, Thursday happened to be the 43rd for Sawx manager Alex Cora. He is the 125th manager in major-league history to win at least a pennant, but the first in that group to ever win a pennant-- or a World Series title-- on his own birthday. Though partial credit to Cleveland's Mike Hargrove (October 26, 1997) for being one of two to lose a World Series on his birthday. The other probably did not expect to be in two notes in the year 2018. Eighteen years after appearing in the 1909 World Series on his 22nd birthday, Donie Bush went to manage the Pirates to the 1927 World Series-- and lost Game 4 to the "Murderers' Row" Yankees on his 40th birthday as well.


Travel Day To Boston

Jumps: NLCS1-2 ... ALCS1-2 ... NLCS3-5 ... ALCS3-5 ... ▼ NLCS6-7


It's Freese-ing In Wisconsin

Remember The David Freese Game from a little while ago? The one that had four lead changes before he walked off with yet another one? Guess who is still playing, not for the Cardinals now, but for the Dodgers. And guess who was the first batter when the NLCS returned to Milwaukee for Game 6. He hit the fifth leadoff home run in Dodgers postseason history, and just their second ever in any game in Milwaukee (including the Braves years). Joc Pederson is the answer to both those questions; he led off the Division Series with a homer at SunTrust Park, and also had the other regular-season dinger in the city, off Kyle Lohse on May 4, 2015. And how many other players in postseason history (at all, any team(s) or year(s)) have hit both a walkoff homer and a leadoff homer? That would be three-- A's great Bert Campaneris, Len Dykstra, and Derek Jeter.

Freese's homer came on the fifth pitch from Wade Miley. No, you're not having a flashback (and we've spared you a link to another Miley Cyrus video, you're welcome). That's the same Wade Miley who threw five pitches in Game 5 before getting pulled as part of some lefty/righty trickery from Craig Counsell. As verified by Stats LLC earlier in the week, Miley was the first pitcher to "start" back-to-back games in the same postseason series since George Earnshaw of the Athletics did it in the 1930 World Series. Turns out Earnshaw did it in 1929 also, and at least in the modern (1903-) WS, we found three others: Christy Mathewson in 1911, Jack Coombs in 1910, and Deacon Phillippe of the Pirates who started FOUR games (3, 4, 7, and 8) of the first WS against Boston in 1903.

That lead, however, didn't last very long, and after Jesús Aguilar and Mike Moustakas hit back-to-back doubles in the 1st, we were well on our way to a Game 7. Aguilar's shot was actually the first double in Brewers postseason history that turned a deficit into a lead (they've had four homers do it, but never a two-bagger), and when Freese doubled again in the 5th, we saw Miley leave the game-- this time, like others before him, just two outs shy of qualifying for the win. Rich Hill last season, Clay Buchholz in 2013, and the Angels' Kevin Appier in 2002 are the only other pitchers to make four starts in one postseason and not get a decision in any of them. Aguilar would single home one more run, and score another on a wild pitch after doubling to lead off the 7th, ending up as just the third player in Brewers postseason history with three hits and three runs batted in, after Ryan Braun (2011) and Mark Brouhard (1982). If you include the constraint that two of the hits have to be for extra bases, it was Aguilar's sixth such game in 2018, tying the team record for such a thing held by Robin Yount in 1982. And while they haven't played all that many, the 7-2 final was the Brewers' largest-ever victory in a game where they could have been eliminated with a loss. They beat the Angels 9-5 in Game 4 of the 1982 ALCS, then also won Game 5 for the "right" to get trounced by the Cardinals.


Puig Your Pennant

So Game 7. We love Games 7. If you could guarantee a Game 7 in the World Series every year, would it get to be as big as the Super Bowl? Nah, probably not, but you can't beat one game for all the Tostitos. And it looked good again for the faithful at Miller Park when Christian Yelich hit a solo homer two batters in. Small sample size again, but only one other Brewers player had ever hit a go-ahead homer in any inning of a winner-take-all game, Gorman Thomas off the Yankees' Ron Guidry in the 1981 ALDS.

Alas that lead lasted 13 minutes. After "that guy", Manny Machado, led off the 2nd with a bunt single, Cody Bellinger cranked a two-run homer to flip the lead and ultimately put the Dodgers back in the World Series. Like Yelich, his was only the second go-ahead homer in Dodgers history in a winner-take-all game; the other was hit by current Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday, and also in Game 5 of the strike-necessitated 1981 Division Series (at Montréal, and not on a Monday).

In the season of #bullpenning, 2-1 in a Game 7 was apparently enough to make Craig Counsell pull the string again, pinch-hitting for Jhoulys Chacin in the 2nd inning. Recall that Gio Gonzalez worked only 2 innings in the opener, and 1+ when he got hit by that line drive in Game 4. Combined with Miley's one-batter stunt, it was the first time in postseason history that a team had gotten four "starts" of 2 IP or less in a single series; the only team to even do it four times in an entire postseason had been the 1984 Padres.

The Brewers had a few chances against Walker Buehler, but Lorenzo Cain's leadoff single in the 3rd was erased on a double play, Travis Shaw's leadoff double in the 4th was followed by two strikeouts, and Cain's double in the 5th came with two outs. But as the 19th batter of the game, that double gave Dave Roberts the famous "third time through the order" jitters and caused Buehler to also get pulled at the magical 4⅔ mark, one out shy of qualifying for the win. Already seven starters this posteason have worked into the 5th inning but not through it in a game their team won (but obviously they didn't because rules). That's tied (with 2016, naturally) for the most in any postseason, and we've still got anywhere from eight to 14 more chances.

Saturday's real dagger, however, was in the 6th when Xavier Cedeño failed at getting his one assigned target, Max Muncy, and then Jeremy Jeffress surrendered a three-run tater to everyone's friend, Yasiel Puig. You might remember Jeffress's blown save from Game 2 on a Justin Turner lead-flipping homer; while he didn't blow a save this time since Milwaukee was already trailing, this was his third relief appearance of the postseason giving up three hits and two runs. He's one of only five pitchers to do that all-time; Jose Valverde did it for the Tigers in 2012, and the others (Dave Giusti 1974, Fred Green and Clem Labine in 1960) were all Pirates.

Puig joined a fascinating list of Dodgers to have a homer and 3+ RBI in a game that clinched them the pennant (regular season or since LCS play began in 1969). Enrique Hernandez did it last year, but the rest of the list is Steve Garvey in 1974, Duke Snider in 1956, and Jackie Robinson in 1955. (Cap-tip to Friend Of Kernels Jacob Pomrenke of SABR for having a publicly-available list of all the pennant-clinching games.) And between them, Bellinger and Puig were just the fifth teammates ever to each hit a multi-run homer in a winner-take-all game on the road, and the first not to be tied to New York or Boston somehow. Johnny Damon and David Ortiz did it in the 2004 ALCS (at Yankee Stadium); Troy O'Leary and Nomar Garciaparra did it in 1999 in Cleveland; George Brett and John Mayberry hit them at Yankee Stadium in 1976 (but still lost); and Yogi Berra joined Bill Skowron of the Yankees in hitting them across the river in Brooklyn to win the 1956 title.

Ever still the likely MVP since voting was done during the regular season, Yelich couldn't do it all himself. He became only the fifth player whose solo homer wound up being the team's only run in an elimination game. All of them, naturally, lost; the others are Dustin Pedroia in 2008, then-Cardinal J.D. Drew in 2001, Baltimore's Rich Dauer in the 1979 World Series, and current Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon in the 1968 classic against Detroit. Thanks to added rounds and the persistent "season creep", the World Series regularly reaches into November now, but still the only time the Brewers reached it was in 1982. That season, like 2018, ended in a Game 7 loss... on October 20.


Did You Know?

Be careful, Boston fans. We've followed this stat for a while now because it keeps on being true. Thanks to the modern scheduling and TV and travel days and all that good stuff, there's never been a season in the Wild Card Era where both pennants were claimed on the same day. The last time that happened was in 1992. Which also enables us to wonder about the effects of the layoff. By winning the AL in five games on Thursday, the Red Sox will have four days off before starting the World Series on Tuesday. The Dodgers have only two to recover from their champagne hangovers, plus a nice long plane ride. Does momentum matter? Well, in the past nine consecutive seasons, and 11 of the past 12, the team that won its pennant first, and thus had the longer layoff, ended up losing the World Series.

Sight Unseen

We are not alone in thinking that part of baseball's appeal is the idea that every game is different, that on any given day you can show up to a ballpark and maybe see something that's never happened before, even after over 215,000 major-league contests. For those of us who are diehard scorekeepers, you start with 81 blank squares (nine batters times nine innings if your sheet is set up that way) and you have no idea what's going to end up in them. Take that mystique and plop it down on a postseason stage, and you get a look back at the Division Series round that's not just quirky and unusual, but downright historic.

By the way, we recognize that this post covers four series plus the Wild Card games and can get long. But that also makes it neatly compartmental. Each section has jumps to the others if you'd prefer to skip around.
Take me to!: Dodgers/Braves ▼ ... Brewers/Rockies ... Astros/Indians ... Red Sox/Yankees ... Wild Card games


Dodging Bullets
Have You Ever Seen?: A 20-year-old rookie hitting a postseason grand slam.

Maybe in college or the minors, but in the majors, no you haven't. At least until you tuned in to Game 3 of the Braves' series with the Dodgers on Sunday. You probably know that the 20-year-old rookie who's generated all the buzz all season is Ronald Acuña, and he-- almost singlehandedly-- kept the Braves' hopes alive for one extra day with that 2nd-inning shot off Walker Buehler.

Up in New York there have been lots of comparisons between Mickey Mantle and another youngster, Gleyber Torres of the Yankees, but on Sunday, Acuña dropped into that conversation as well. The Mick had previously been the youngest batter ever to hit a postseason grand slam, doing so in Game 5 of the 1953 World Series at Ebbets Field, 16 days before his 22nd birthday. Acuña broke that mark by over a year. Three of the five youngest postseason slammers have occurred in the past three years; Francisco Lindor hit one last year, and Addison Russell smacked one for the Cubs two seasons ago.

Acuña, like all of us, had actually aged two days since Friday (possibly some Braves fans and staff aged more). But that's when he opened Game 2 at Dodger Stadium with a leadoff double, also setting a record for that. Previously the youngest player with any leadoff extra-base hit in a postseason game had been Pittsburgh's Lloyd Waner, who tripled to start Game 2 of the 1927 World Series against the Yankees. Acuña undercut Waner's youthfulness by about nine months.

Sunday's Game-3 longball was also Acuña's first career grand slam; among his many accomplishments in the 2018 regular season (one of which appears likely to be winning the Rookie Of The Year award), that wasn't one of them. He is the second-youngest player in Braves history (all of it, to 1876) to hit any grand slam, and like most things Braves- and age-related, the answer is Andruw Jones. Jones hit one at Fenway Park on August 31, 1997, while about five months younger than Acuña.

Acuña only came to the plate with the bases loaded because pitcher Sean Newcomb, hitting in front of him, had also come to the plate with bases loaded-- and drawn a four-pitch walk! Nothing earns the scorn of a fanbase quite like walking the opposing pitcher, and sure enough, Newcomb is only the eighth hurler in postseason history (and first for the Braves) to get a free pass with the bases loaded. The only other time the Dodgers issued one in postseason play was in the 1977 NLCS when Burt Hooton walked Phillies starter Larry Christenson.

Newcomb, however, wouldn't make it out of the 3rd inning as the Dodgers fought their way back to eventually tie the game. It took Freddie Freeman's leadoff homer on the first pitch of the 6th to regain a 6-5 lead, and then some incredible escape artistry by Arodys Vizcaino in the 9th to strike out three straight after allowing the first two batters to reach and throwing a wild pitch. Touki Toussaint, who had pitched T6 and was the pitcher of record when Freeman went yard, also became the second-youngest Braves pitcher to get a win in a postseason game, behind Odalis Perez (1998 NLDS) and Steve Avery (twice in 1991 NLCS).

And thanks to all those walks early on (Buehler issued two others before the run-scoring one to Newcomb), the Braves finished Game 3 with the unusual linescore of 6 runs on 4 hits. We enjoy the oddity of what we call "inverted linescores" (runs > hits), and Game 3 was just the third game in postseason history where a team scored 6+ on ≤ 4. But the last time the Braves did it, postseason or not? That would be April 8, 1974, also against the Dodgers, who committed six errors en route to a 7-4 Atlanta win. Somehow that part of the story didn't get much attention-- because if you're into baseball history, you immediately recognize that date. It's "only" the exact same game in which Hank Aaron hit career homer number 715 to break Babe Ruth's record.


More From This Series:
⚾ Joc Pederson, Game 1: Fourth leadoff home run in Dodgers postseason history. Chris Taylor started the World Series with one last year; the others are Carl Crawford (2013 NLDS 4) and Davey Lopes (1978 WS 6).

⚾ Justin Turner, Game 1: Doubled on very next pitch after Pederson's homer, the first time in Dodgers postseason history they'd opened a game with back-to-back extra-base hits.

⚾ Hyun-Jin Ryu, Game 1: Second pitcher in Dodgers history to allow 0 runs, ≤ 5 baserunners, and strike out 8+ in a postseason game. Other is Sandy Koufax in Game 5 of the 1965 World Series against Minnesota.

⚾ Max Muncy, Game 1: Homered, drew three walks, and stole a base. Eddie Murray of the Orioles (1983 ALCS 3) is the only other player in postseason history with that line. The last Dodger to do it was Jim Wynn at St Louis on August 10, 1974.

⚾: Braves, Game 1: First team in postseason history to be shut out by 6 runs or more despite out-hitting their opponent (6 to 5 in this case).

⚾ Braves, Games 1 and 2: First time being shut out in consecutive games at Dodger Stadium since September 15-16, 1989, by Ramon Martinez & Tim Belcher.

⚾ David Freese, Game 4: Third pinch hitter in Dodgers postseason history to turn a deficit into a lead. The others are only Cookie Lavagetto's walkoff double in the 1947 World Series (which also broke up Bill Bevens' no-hitter), and some Kirk Gibson home run you're probably never heard of.

⚾ Braves: 14th time (12th since moving to Atlanta) being eliminated from postseason play at home. Most in MLB history... or at least it was for two days. (Spoiler alert.)


Take me to!: Dodgers/Braves ... Brewers/Rockies ▼ ... Astros/Indians ... Red Sox/Yankees ... Wild Card games

---

Rocky Series (Not The Stallone Kind)
Have You Ever Seen?: A pitcher balk in a run and then wild-pitch in a run in the same at-bat.

In retrospect, you probably could have seen this one coming if you watched the 1st inning of the first game of the Brewers/Rockies series on Thursday. After Ryan Braun singled, Colorado pitcher Antonio Senzatela uncorked two wild pitches, and only got bailed out because Braun got greedy on the second one, tried to score from second, and was thrown out to end the inning. The last pitcher to throw multiple WPs in the 1st inning of a postseason game was Joe Blanton of the Phillies in 2010 (NLCS 4 at SF).

Braun would later shoot a line-drive single into right field, with the ball just clipped and redirected by the glove of a leaping Ian Desmond at first. Christian Yelich, who was on first, couldn't be sure if it was caught and held up. Which of course means RF Carlos Gonzalez still has time to retrieve the ball and force Yelich at second. That (by rule) takes away an apparent single from Braun, since the defense still got to the ball in time to record a forceout. And if you're scoring at home, that deflection off Desmond's glove results in the first "3-9-6" fielder's choice in postseason history. We couldn't even find another FC396 in the regular season since Lonnie Smith, then of the Royals, forced Buddy Biancalana against the Blue Jays on July 29, 1986!

And that's not even the play that we teased you with. Rockies pitcher Scott Oberg appeared in all three games of the series, and had wildly different results in each one. Game 1 was an uneventful outing, retiring Manny Piña and then departing because #bullpenning. Game 2 on Friday saw him allowing a leadoff automatic double to Hernan Perez in the 7th, Perez's second of the game. Not just his second double-- his second automatic double of the game because the ball bounced over the fence. (These are commonly, though incorrectly, called "ground-rule" doubles even though they are universal under Rule 5.05(a)(6). Ground rules are specific to each park (think the catwalks at Tropicana). But we digress.) Only three other players in postseason history have hit multiples in a game: Yadier Molina for the Cardinals in 2005, Hector Lopez of the Yankees in 1963, and Pittsburgh's Ed Phelps in the first World Series in 1903 (his were presumably awarded because of the overflow of fans onto the outfield grass in those days, which actually is a ground rule).

Back to Scott Oberg, however, Perez's double was followed by a single to Travis Shaw to move him to third, and just when you thought this might be the tipping point, Oberg responds with three straight strikeout to strand both runners and keep the game at 1-0. That was the Rockies' first such performance (second and third with 0 out, then struck out three without a run scoring) since Scott Linebrink did it against the Phillies on August 5, 2007.

Maybe that high from Friday didn't carry over to Sunday when the series moved to Denver, however. Oberg got summoned again in the 6th with the Rockies trailing 2-0 (and facing a sweep), but gave up two hits to once again face second and third with one out. Orlando Arcia strikes out. Whew. But with Curtis Granderson up, Oberg gets called for a balk when he drops the ball while standing on the pitcher's mound. Suddenly it's 3-0 and now Erik Kratz has moved up to third. Two pitches later, Oberg bounces one to make it 4-0. The Brewers would end up winning 6-0 to complete the sweep, but Oberg claimed his place in the record book. No pitcher in postseason history had ever balked in a run and wild-pitched in a run in the same game, much less in the same at-bat. Only one other Colorado hurler had ever done it in the same game, and that was in their first season: Curt Leskanic against the Braves on July 26, 1993.

And if that game wasn't strange enough? Ryan Braun, already involved in enough weirdness, was hanging out at first base in the 5th when Travis Shaw smoked a grounder through the right side. Or, well, it would have been through the right side if Braun could have gotten out of the way. Plunk. One of our favorite-est plays here at #Kernels, the old "HBB" (hit by batted ball). By rule, the ball is dead, Braun is out, Shaw gets credit for an infield single, and the putout goes to the closest fielder even though no fielder actually handled the ball. The last runner to be out "HBB" in the postseason was the Cubs' Starlin Castro in 2015 (NLDS 3, hit by Javier Baez), and if you really needed confirmation, yes, Sunday's Game 3 was the first game in postseason history where a run scored on a balk, another run scored on a wild pitch, and a runner was hit by a batted ball. All of this in the span of nine batters. And we guarantee you've never seen that before now.

More From This Series:
⚾ Brandon Woodruff, Game 1: Fourth "starter" in postseason history to depart a game in the 3rd or later with a no-hitter intact. Anibal Sanchez threw the first six innings of a combined one for the Tigers in 2013; the others (Paul Abbott for Mariners in 2001 and Baltimore's Mike Cuellar in 1974) each issued at least eight walks.

⚾ Mike Moustakas, Game 1: Second walkoff anything in Brewers postseason history. Nyjer Morgan doubled off Arizona's J.J. Putz in Game 5 of their 2011 NLDS, which was also the Brewers' only extra-inning postseason game before Thursday.

⚾ Christian Yelich, Game 1: Third Brewer to reach base four times and drive in two runs in a postseason game. Others are Paul Molitor and Robin Yount, both in the opener of the 1982 World Series in St Louis.

⚾ Hernan Perez, Game 2: First player caught stealing home in a postesason game since Eric Hosmer of the Royals in the 2014 Wild Card game against Oakland.

⚾ Erik Kratz, Game 2: Oldest player ever to have multiple RBIs in his first career postseason game (he's 38). Previous mark held by pitcher-turned-outfield Lefty O'Doul of the Giants, who had a pinch-hit single in the 1933 World Series at age 36.

⚾ Erik Kratz, Games 2 & 3: First player ever to play his first two postseason games at age 35 or older and have multiple hits in both of them. Sam Rice (1924 Senators), Joe Harris (1925 Senators), and Don Mattingly (1995 Yankees) all did it at age 34.

⚾ Orlando Arcia & Keon Broxton: Hit Brewers' first-ever postseason back-to-back homers in Game 3. Also hit them at Coors on August 18 of last year. Other visiting teammates to do it twice there (either order): Albert Pujols & Jim Edmonds (STL); Barry Bonds & Jeff Kent (SF, 3x); Eric Karros & Mike Piazza (LAD).

⚾ Rockies, Games 2 & 3: Seventh team in postseason history to lose the last two games of a series and get shut out in both. Previous was the 1991 Pirates in their NLCS against Atlanta.


Take me to!: Dodgers/Braves ... Brewers/Rockies ... Astros/Indians ▼ ... Red Sox/Yankees ... Wild Card games

---

Houston We Have Liftoff
Have You Ever Seen?: A pitcher hit two batters and THEN give up three homers.

And have that pitcher be Corey Kluber, aka "Klubot", who got that nickname from his robotic ability to repeatedly strike out hitters. But before recording his first K in Thursday's ALDS Game 1, Kluber had plunked Marwin Gonzalez, and two pitches after striking out Carlos Correa, he then plunked Tyler White. Already he's joined CC Sabathia (2007), Steve Reed (1999), and Chad Ogea (1998) as the only Indians pitchers to hit multiple batters in a postseason game. And then.

Josh Reddick actually grounded into a double play to allow Kluber to escape the 2-HBP inning. But Alex Bregman led off the 4th with a homer, and one inning later, George Springer and Jose Altuve hinted that this might be a short series with back-to-back taters to start the 5th. Kluber retired the next two batters after the Indians were already trailing 4-0, but not before becoming just the second pitcher in postseason history to hit two batters and surrender three longballs. The other was Boston's Matt Clement in the opener of their 2005 ALDS against the White Sox; Clement ended up allowing 8 runs and the Sawx lost 14-2. When Martin Maldonado homered to lead off the 7th, that made the Astros just the seventh team in postseason history to lead off three different innings with homers in the same game, and the second to do it at home. Victor Martinez (4th), Jhonny Peralta (6th), and Miguel Cabrera (7th) all hit them for the Tigers in Game 3 of the 2011 ALCS against Texas.

Meanwhile, as not unexpected in the series between the two best pitching staffs in the majors, Justin Verlander was dealing, mowing down 15 of the first 16 Cleveland hitters, allowing just a 1st-inning walk, and sending us down that no-hitter spiral again. Yan Gomes finally opened the 6th with a ninth-pinch single (which immediately called for a mound visit because, JV gave up a hit?), thereby putting Verlander in a tie for the second-longest no-hitter in Astros postseason history. Mike Hampton also went five in the 1998 NLDS at San Diego before Chris Gomez opened the 6th with a single. Houston's longest bid came from Brandon Backe of all people, who combined with Brad Lidge on a one-hitter against the Cardinals in Game 5 of the 2004 NLCS. That lone hit was a single by Tony Womack with two outs in the 6th. JV also maanged to bump himself down Houston's list by one spot; he went 4⅔ in last year's World Series against the Dodgers. And if you're curious, yes, he also owns the Tigers' record for longest solo postseason no-hitter, finally allowing a single to Yoenis Cespedes (then of Oakland) with two outs in the 7th in the 2013 ALDS clincher. Just two days later, that record would be eclipsed at a team level when Anibal Sanchez (6 IP), Al Alburquerque, Jose Veras, and Drew Smyly opened the ALCS with eight no-hit innings against the Red Sox; Daniel Nava finally connected against Joaquin Benoit in the 9th. (If you've been reading in order, this is the same game mentioned earlier in the Brandon Woodruff note.)

As for Friday's Game 1, Verlander became the second pitcher in Astros history to win a postseason game while allowing no more than two hits and striking out at least seven. The other was in the front row behind home plate (and was shown on TV multiple times)-- Nolan Ryan in the strike-necessitated Division Series of 1981 against the Dodgers.

Even though Verlander gave us the biggest no-hitter scare of the postseason so far, it was Gerrit Cole who posted the most outlandish pitching line in any of the first two rounds. We got the no-hitter part out of the way early enough, when Edwin Encarnacion smoked a grounder off Yuli Gurriel's glove and into right field (alas, there was not a runner on first to set up a potential 3-9-6 fielder's choice). But Cole struck out the two batters after that, then two more in the 3rd around a Francisco Lindor solo homer, and then all three Clevelanders in the 4th. In our "modern" era where strikeouts are perfectly acceptable, it's not surprising that Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel both rung up seven of them in the first four innings last postseason (JV's was in that 4⅔ no-hitter against the Dodgers), but once again, the only Astros pitcher to do it before that, was that guy in the front row. Nolan fanned eight Mets in the first four frames in Game 5 of the 1986 NLCS. Cole would fan two more in the 5th and 6th, and then blow away Encarnacion on three pitches to start the 7th. That's a dozen strikeouts-- ALL of them swinging-- and zero walks in a postseason game. Ever seen that? Only if you have a ticket stub from October 6. Because the only other time it happened was 45 years earlier to the day-- when Tom Seaver threw a complete game to open the 1973 NLCS against the Reds... and lost 2-1 on a Johnny Bench walkoff homer.

Now of course, those 12 strikeouts and 0 walks come with the postseason asterisk. But if you're an Astros fan, you've seen this movie before. In fact Cole had three starts in the regular season where he posted that line, already the most in Astros history. If you fold in the postseason, he's only the second pitcher in the live-ball era to do it four times in one year, joining Cy Young winner Roger Clemens with Toronto in 1997.


More From This Series:
⚾ Indians, Game 1: Second game in team's postseason history where they were held to three hits and struck out at least 10 times. The other... only won them a pennant. In Game 6 of the 1997 ALCS, the last hit was Tony Fernandez's solo homer in the 11th for a 1-0 victory over the Orioles.

⚾ Francisco Lindor, Game 2: Third player in Indians history whose solo homer was the team's only run of a postseason game. One is Fernandez (see above). Other was Al Smith in a 3-1 loss to the Giants in 1954 WS Game 2.

⚾ Francisco Lindor, Games 2 & 3: Hit 18th and 19th go-ahead home runs this year, tied for second-most in a season (incl post) in Indians history. Al Rosen had 22 in 1953. Manny Ramirez (1999) and Rocky Colavito (1959) also had 19 each.

⚾ Alex Bregman: Fourth player in Astros history to homer in Games 1 and 2 of same postseason series, joining Colby Rasmus (2015 ALDS), Carlos Beltran (2004 NLCS), and Ken Caminiti (1995 NLDS).

⚾ Indians, Game 3: Fifth loss in postseason history by 8 or more runs. First of those five that wasn't to the Red Sox (lost by 16 in 1999, 10 and 9 in 2007, and 8 in 1998).

⚾ George Springer, Game 3: Second Astros hitter ever to have a multi-run game in Cleveland. Evan Gattis was the first-- on May 27 in a 10-9 extra-inning loss.

⚾ George Springer, with Didi Gregorius last season: Indians were eliminated from postseason in a game where an opposing player hit multiple homers. First team in MLB history to do that in consecutive years.


Take me to!: Dodgers/Braves ... Brewers/Rockies ... Astros/Indians ... Red Sox/Yankees ▼ ... Wild Card games

---

When 19 Games Isn't Enough
Have You Ever Seen?: A player hitting for the cycle in the postseason.

No, you haven't. Again, at least not in the majors. We've heard from folks who think cycles are overrated, but consider that in major-league history there have been 299 no-hitters and only 323 cycles. In fact there were dozens of no-hitters wiped off the books in 1991 (depriving us of great stories about Andy Hawkins and Devern Hansack), so depending on your definition, the cycle may actually be more rare than the nine-inning no-no.

Oh yeah, that number 323? Make it 324. And have it be by the same person who recorded cycle #306. And have that person be... Brock Holt? The same Brock Holt who had two triples and 14 homers in the past three seasons combined? Did we mention you never know what's going to go in those 81 squares?

Game 3 of the Red Sox/Yankees series was already destined to be one of their most memorable ones even before the 9th inning. Holt's first square got occupied with a fairly harmless groundout, although that did move Rafael Devers to third and allowed him to score the game's first run on an infield single. In the 3rd Luis Severino got tagged for three singles and a sac fly to make it 3-0 Boston, but there's still plenty of time. In a move that was widely questioned by Yankees Twitter, Aaron Boone sends Sevy back out for the 4th, where his first two pitches promptly get raked for singles, one of them by Holt. His next four pitches did not get put in play, but they also didn't find the strike zone. Bases loaded, and from the bullpen trots... Lance Lynn? Not to be outdone, his first four pitches miss the strike zone as well, so in trots Holt to make it 4-0. But it's Andrew Benintendi who delivers the big blow, unloading the bases with a double to make it 7-0. Only one other Red Sox batter had clobbered a 3-run double at Yankee Stadium since the new one opened in 2009, and it happens to be Brock Holt (April 11, 2015, off Matt Tracy).

Those first six runs were charged to Severino, making him the first Yankee pitcher to give up six earned while getting nine or fewer outs in the postseason since A.J. Burnett did it in Game 5 of the 2009 World Series in Philadelphia (he at least sent the series back to New York so they could win it at home). And combined with a pair of substandard Sonny Gray starts, it was the first year where the Yankees had three such games against the Red Sox since 1941.

The Lance Lynn Experiment lasted just four batters before giving way to The Chad Green Experience. Which gave way to three more Red Sox runs, two of them on a triple by our friend Brock Holt. You know, the guy who hit two triples in the past three seasons combined. It was Boston's first multi-run triple at the current Yankee Stadium, and combined with Benintendi, it was the first time in Red Sox postseason history that they'd hit a multi-run triple and a multi-run double in the same inning. By the time Green finally got out of it, the Sawx had hung their first 7-spot in the Bronx since June 9, 2011, against CC Sabathia.

Although the Yankees have had plenty of comebacks this year, including a near-miss in Game 1 of the series, at 10-1 and then 11-1 it was pretty clear this one wasn't happening. Holt decided to leave no doubt, hitting another one of those pesky automatic doubles to make it 12-1 in the 8th. That already made him the third Red Sox batter in postseason history to go single-double-triple in a game, joining Jacoby Ellsbury (2013 ALCS) and Mike Stanley (1999 ALDS). No Bostonian had gone single-double-triple and driven in three runs in the Bronx since Tony Conigliaro did it in a loss on April 26, 1966. And with two outs in the 9th, just as we're finishing up a blast of notes on the 14-1 final score, Ian Kinsler goes and works a six-pitch walk. To bring up Brock Holt... and create history. Of those 323 previous cycles, none had been in a postseason game. None had been at the new Yankee Stadium since 2009 (including by the home team), and there hadn't been one at the old place since Tony Fernandez did it against Oakland on September 3, 1995. Only one had ever been by a Red Sox batter against the Yankees, and that was in their first season-- Patsy Dougherty on July 29, 1903.

We mentioned that Holt also sits on line 306 of the cycles list, having done it on June 16, 2015, against the Braves. Only one other player has hit for the cycle twice in a Red Sox uniform, Bobby Doerr in 1944 and 1947. And combined with the one Mookie Betts recorded on August 9, it's the first time since 1944 that Boston's had two in a season; Doerr's was one, and Bob Johnson had the other that year. Even forgetting the cycle, Holt was just the fourth Bostonian ever to have four hits and five RBIs against the Yankees; Mookie Betts did it last month. The others were Mike Greenwell in 1990 and Carl Yastrzemski in 1977.

Monday's 16-1 final was, predictably, the third-largest win ever for the Red Sox over their bitter rival; the two that were larger were a pair of 17-1 wins seven weeks apart in 2005. It was also the fourth postseason win by 15 runs or more by any team, and the first ever on the road. Boston holds the top spot in that category also, a 23-7 win over Cleveland in the 1999 ALDS (if you've been reading in order, that's the 16-run loss mentioned in the Indians section).

But at least backup catcher Austin Romine gets to take his place in postseason history as well. Cliff Pennington, for the Blue Jays in a 14-2 thumping by Kansas City three years ago, had been the only position player ever to pitch in a postseason game. And given that New York is rarely in that large of a blowout to require a position player pitching, Romine became just the second one in the live-ball era to surrender a home run for them. The other is just some guy named Babe Ruth, in a doubleheader at Philadelphia on October 1, 1921. The Babe, of course, started life as a pitcher but had turned full-time outfielder by '21; he threw four innings that day in what appears to be an end-of-season stunt for the fans (yes, they did those even back then).


More From This Series:
⚾ Craig Kimbrel, Games 1 & 4: First pitcher in postseason history to get two saves in same series despite allowing a run(s) in both of them.

⚾ Yankees, Game 1: First 9-inning game where they had 15+ baserunners but struck out 13+ times and scored ≤ 4 runs since July 21, 2001, against Toronto.

⚾ Aaron Judge: Eighth Yankees batter to homer in three straight games in same postseason. A-Rod (2009), Bernie Williams (1996 & 2001), Reggie (1977), Hank Bauer (1958), Johnny Mize (1952), Lou Gehrig (1928).

⚾ Gary Sanchez: Multi-homer game at Fenway on April 11, then did it again in Game 2 of ALDS. Joins Hideki Matsui (2009), Mickey Mantle (1966), Bill Skowron (1957 & 1961), and Babe Ruth (1927) as only Yankees to do it twice at Fenway in same season.

⚾ David Price: Worked just 1 inning vs Yankees on April 11 (Sanchez homered off him, see above), then got just five outs in ALDS Game 2. First Red Sox pitcher to make two starts of under 2 IP vs Yankees in same season since Earl Wilson in 1963.

⚾ Red Sox, Game 3: Third road game in past 60 years where they scored 16+ runs while hitting no more than one homer. One was a 16-2 win in Oakland two seasons ago; the other was in Kansas City on April 13, 1983 (18-4).

⚾ Neil Walker, Game 4: Third player in postseason history to take a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in the 9th inning. Boston's Calvin Schiraldi tied 1986 ALCS Game 4 by hitting the Angels' Brian Downing, and Dennis Martinez of the Orioles hit Pittsburgh's Bill Robinson in Game 7 of the 1979 World Series.

⚾ Yankees: 14th time in team history being eliminated from the postseason at home. Tied with Braves (who did it on Sunday) for most in MLB history, though "only" 12 of theirs are in Atlanta. Fourth time the last loss was by 1 run (also 2011, 1926, 1921).


Take me to!: Dodgers/Braves ... Brewers/Rockies ... Astros/Indians ... Red Sox/Yankees ... Wild Card games ▼

---

Wild Wild Life
Have You Ever Seen?: The Rockies be victorious in a winner-take-all game? Or the Yankees win one by 5 or more runs at home?

Nope. Not until this year. Given their limited history, the Rockies note isn't that surprising, and if you're having flashbacks to the game where Matt Holliday may or may not have touched home plate, remember that was a regular-season tiebreaker, not an official postseason game. According to the fine folks at Stats LLC, that leaves the White Sox as the only current franchise never to come out on top in a winner-take-all game, and that's only because they've never played in one. Their only Game 7 in postseason history was in the 1919 "Black Sox" World Series, and at time the Fall Classic was best-of-9.

It did, however, take a while for the Rockies to get that win in Tuesday's NL Wild Card game after Javier Baez dropped an RBI double in the bottom of the 8th to score pinch runner Terrance Gore. That was only the second tying or go-ahead hit in Cubs history in a winner-take-all game; you might remember the other one. It was Ben Zobrist's double in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series-- after the 10th-inning rain delay where the team held an impromptu clubhouse meeting. Baez's hit actually bailed out Jon Lester who had allowed just one run (and that was three batters into the game) and then settled down to strike out his customary nine opponents. While he didn't lose the game thanks to Baez, Lester also didn't win it, becoming the first pitcher in Cubs postseason history with the 1-run, 9-strikeouts line to not do so.

An inning later, we had the 12th winner-take-all game in postseason history to reach extra innings, and as we've said before, some extra-inning games are exciting and it's like 8-8 and you can feel that someone's going to untie this one real soon. Tuesday was not that game. It was 1-1 and fairly obvious that both teams were running on fumes, especially after both played in Games 163 the day before. The Rockies had started the week at home in Denver, had to play in Los Angeles the next day, and lost there to earn their trip back over Colorado all the way to Chicago. So another hour passes with not even a hint that someone might score soon, and suddenly our 12th winner-take-all game to go extras becomes the first one ever to reach a 13th inning. Only two others had gone to 12 frames, and those were both walked off in B12 (one of them, famously, Earl McNeely's 1924 double to give the Washington Senators their only World Series title). Finally the Rockies wake up enough to connect for three straight singles, the last one by Tony Wolters to score Trevor Story, just the third go-ahead anything for the Rockies in extra innings of a postseason game. Willy Taveras drew a bases-loaded walk in the 2007 NLCS at Arizona, and Andres Galarraga singled off Atlanta's Mark Wohlers in Game 3 of the 1995 Division Series. (You may remember that the Matt Holliday play-- while still a regluar-season game-- was also in the 13th inning.)

Scott Oberg, who under Colorado state law must find his way into every postseason game somehow, ended up striking out all four batters he faced, including Gore and Baez again in the 13th, plus Albert Almora to end the game. Only Kenley Jansen (2017 NLCS 1) and the Cardinals' Todd Worrell (1985 WS 5) have done that in postseason history, and the only other Rockies hurler to do it was Justin Miller against the Padres on September 7, 2015.

And we love to talk about Those Boring Middle Innings, but notice that the Rockies' two runs came in the top of the 1st and the top of the 13th. Only one other team in postseason history had won a game where it went 11 straight innings without scoring (obviously you need at least a 12-inning game for this to happen). The 1999 Mets hung two in the 1st and then walked off the 15th against Atlanta in NLCS Game 5. You might have heard of this game too; it's the Robin Ventura "grand slam single".


Meanwhile, over in the AL Wild Card game, there was less drama when Aaron Judge became the second player in Yankees postseason history to hit a two-run homer as the second batter of the game. Like Ventura, Derek Jeter posted his hit in Game 5 of the 1999 League Championship Series, and also off a former Braves pitcher (Kent Mercker, by then with Boston). Luis Severino didn't allow a hit until the 5th, becoming the first Yankee to get that far in a winner-take-all game since Ralph Terry in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series. (Fortunately we didn't need to consult our file to find the Yankees' longest postseason no-hitter in any game.) The A's, who went full-#bullpenning mode and started Former New Britain Rock Cat Liam Hendricks, were down to Fernando Rodney by the 6th, and their radio broadcast pointed out that they had a flight at 12:30 on Thursday, it was just a question of whether it was headed east or west. Well, Rodney made sure that arrow pointed back to Oakland by giving up back-to-back doubles to The Aarons (Judge & Hicks), bouncing the first pitch to Giancarlo Stanton, and getting pulled in the middle of an at-bat. Rodney is just the fourth pitcher in postseason history to give up multiple extra-base hits, throw a wild pitch, and get nobody out. Brandon Morrow of the Dodgers did it in last year's World Series, as did Hunter Strickland for the Giants in 2014, and Brooklyn's Roger Craig in 1956 (also against the Yankees).

Luke Voit then tripled in two more runs and the Yankees cruised to a 7-2 win, their second-largest victory margin ever in a winner-take-all game. Thanks in part to Roger Craig's effort mentioned above, they rolled over the Dodgers 9-0 in Game 7 of that 1956 World Series. However, that game was at Ebbets Field, meaning Wednesday's 5-run win is their largest ever in a winner-take-all game at home. The Athletics have lost eight straight such games, the longest streak in MLB history; their last winner-take-all win was Game 7 of the 1973 World Series. The Indians, however, are sitting on an active seven-game streak as well. Wednesday's game was also Oakland's largest loss at Yankee Stadium since the famous "Three Grand Slams" game on August 25, 2011 (22-9).

And the last batter in Wednesday's game? Matt Chapman grounds out to first. Putout recorded by the pitcher covering-- that would be Aroldis Chapman. It's only the second time in postseason history that a game has been ended by a batter facing a pitcher with the same surname, and in the other case the pitcher didn't record the out. Alex Rodriguez ("A-Rod") grounded out against Francisco Rodriguez ("K-Rod") to end Game 2 of the Yankees/Angels 2005 Division Series.


What other names will get etched in October history in 2018? Only one way to find out... on to the pennants!