Neutral-ized

What better way to top off one of the most bizarre seasons in MLB history than with a bizarre World Series. One in which the east-coast representative and the west-coast representative managed to meet in the middle, at a brand-new ballpark where even the home team hadn't played before its own fans yet, with "travel days" where nobody went anywhere, and with broadcasters who weren't even allowed to be there in person. Such is baseball in 2020. (And, sadly, probably 2021 as well.) But those 30 little golden flags are still up for grabs, so let's dive right in.

Taco Tuesday

Even before the first pitch of the Series on Tuesday, the question on America's mind was not who would win, not "would Clayton Kershaw throw a no-hitter", not "how many homers will Randy Arozarena hit", it's which player was going to earn us our free taco by stealing a base. In a weird twist of fate, there's only been one World Series without a stolen base, and it was the last one where all the games were played at the same site-- the all-St Louis series of 1944. So if history was going to repeat itself, this week would have been perfect. But then we would all have to pay $1.29 for the tacos, and Mookie Betts thinks that's just totally unfair. After a leadoff walk in the 5th, he not only swiped second base (tacos!), but then swiped third as part of a double steal later in the inning (no more tacos because you don't deserve them, America). Only one other player has walked and stolen two bases in the same inning of a World Series game, and it's Babe Ruth in 1921. After the Internet calmed down over their free tacos, they started noticing both those players were traded away by the Red Sox right before their World Series outbursts. In fact, as it turns out, Mookie was the one who earned us all free tacos in 2018 by stealing the first base of that World Series for Boston; in the on-and-off history of the promotion, he's the first player to do it twice.

After the Dodgers tallied 4 runs in that 5th inning and knocked Tyler Glasnow out of the game, Mookie was up again to lead off the 6th, which he promptly did by putting one in the seats in right field. That made him the second player in World Series history with a homer and two steals in the same game, and it's happened both times the Rays have played a Game 1. Chase Utley of the Phillies was the opponent in the 2008 opener. Mookie also led off the 8th with a single, becoming the sixth leadoff batter in World Series history with 2 hits, 2 steals, and 2 runs scored. That's a nice list of notables as well: Kenny Lofton (2002), Otis Nixon (1992), Davey Lopes (1981), Lou Brock (1967), and Pepper Martin (1934).

While the 4-run 5th blew the game open, the Dodgers already had a lead thanks to Cody Bellinger's 2-run homer in the previous inning. You might remember Bellinger hitting another go-ahead homer last week. Only two other Dodgers players have hit a go-ahead homer in back-to-back postseason games: Corey Seager in 2016 and Carl Crawford in 2013, both in the Division Series. And with the caveat that the LCS has only been a 7-game format since the mid-1980s, just six players have homered in Game 7 of an LCS and Game 1 of a World Series in the same year. The other five all played for either Boston or Atlanta-- Dustin Pedroia (2007), Mark Bellhorn (2004), David Ortiz (2004), Andruw Jones (1996), and Fred McGriff (1996).

Enrique Hernandez drove in the final run of that 5th inning as a pinch hitter; you may also remember him doing a little something in LCS 7. He's the first player in Dodgers postseason history with a pinch-hit RBI in back-to-back team games; although Carl Furillo (1947) and Carlos Ruiz (2016) both did it in back-to-back personal appearances, they sat out a game in between. That was also Hernandez's fourth postseason RBI as a pinch hitter, most in Dodgers history except for Furillo's 5.

We'll also throw some love to Corey Seager, even though he didn't homer in Game 1 because he didn't need to. (Wait for it.) Instead the Rays opted to just pitch around him, walking him three times. Seager was then the back end of that double steal with Betts, making him just the second player in Dodgers history with 3 walks and a stolen base in a World Series game. And yes, of course the other is Jackie Robinson, in 1952 Game 5. (That's not the game where he stole home. Because that will be relevant later too.)

On the Rays' side the Star Of The Game has to go to Kevin Kiermaier for being the only one to do anything. He had a solo homer in the 5th and an RBI single in the 7th to account for two of the Rays' three runs. And he joins an illustrious (?) list of number-9 batters to have 2 hits and 2 RBI in a World Series loss: David Bell for the Giants in 2002, Pat Borders of Toronto in 1992, and future World Series manager Phil Garner with the Pirates in 1979.

Sweet & Lowe

In a normal year, buying one World Series ticket can be cost-prohibitive. Being forced to buy them in sets of four this year just makes it worse. So if you're going, you'll want to get there in plenty of time to take full enjoyment of the atmosphere and the food and the overpriced merchandise and, in this case, the new ballpark, before settling into your "pod" at 7:08. Brandon Lowe thanks you. Because at 7:10, he will be depositing a home run into the cardboard cutouts in left-center. (Yes, some of them are still there.) Given that the Rays and Dodgers don't face each other very often, it's only the fourth 1st-inning homer Tampa Bay has ever hit against Los Angeles; Brandon Guyer (2016), Akinori Iwamura (2007), and Randy Winn (2002) have the others.

Ooooh, new shiny ballpark.

Unfortunately for our scoresheet, Game 2 became the Dodgers' chance to experiment with "bullpenning" in a freakin' World Series game since they had already taken Game 1. Thus that homer would be the only hit allowed by "starter" Tony Gonsolin who made it through all of six batters. He's going to end up joining Bob Welch (1983 NLCS) and Johnny Podres (1953 WS) as the only starters in Dodgers postseason history to give up 1 hit and lose, and that's mainly because Lowe is going to homer again in the 5th off Dustin May. Considering the Rays have only been in one other World Series, it goes without saying that they've never had a 2-homer game before. They've also only had one other 2-homer game against the Dodgers, by Jared Sandberg on June 11, 2002. And the illustrious list of players with multiple homers in a World Series Game 2 includes Tim Salmon (2002), Carl Yastrzemski (1967), Mickey Mantle (1958 and 1960), fellow Dodger Charlie Neal (1959), Babe Ruth (1923), and Patsy Dougherty (1903).

In addition to Lowe's two homers, the Rays are already up 5-0 at this point because Dustin May's first act upon entering the game was to give up a 2-run double to Joey Wendle. Wendle would tack on a sacrifice fly in the 6th for the Rays' final run, becoming the first player in Rays postseason history to have 3 RBI without homering. More notably, Wendle and Lowe combined to drive in all 6 Rays' runs, something that's happened only twice before in World Series history. Hideki Matsui (6 by himself) and Mark Teixeira (RBI single) had all 7 Yankees runs in the 2009 finale over Philadelphia, while Willie Aikens and Amos Otis of the Royals combined for three 2-run homers in the opener of the 1980 Series (which they lost).

Hey look Ma, we made it.

And since "bullpenning" is all the rage-- and the Rays are usually blamed as the team that started it-- there was no way they'd let Blake Snell get through the 5th inning even though he didn't give up a hit in the first four. Chris Taylor took care of that by becoming the first starting #9 batter in Dodgers history to homer in a postseason game. And because our ongoing efforts to abolish the 5-inning rule for pitcher wins have not yet been fruitful, Snell became the first starter in World Series history to allow 2 hits, strike out 9, and not get a win. And while the Dodgers fought back to a respectable final of 6-4, Taylor would strike out again to end the game and generate two more notes. That was his third whiff of the evening, joining Joc Pederson (2018) and Sandy Amoros (1955) as the only Dodgers with a homer and 3 strikeouts in a World Series game. And because of course there must be 2-out pitching changes, Taylor's K was the only out recorded by Diego Castillo. In a 2-run game that means he gets credit for a save, the first by a pitcher who only got the final out of the 9th (not extras) since Cincinnati's Rawly Eastwick in 1975.

Game 2 immortalized. 1-out save and all.

Little Red Grains Of Sand

Did it seem like our LCS post was all about Corey Seager and Randy Arozarena? Yeah, we thought so too as we were writing it. Notice we haven't mentioned either of them yet in the World Series? Okay, Seager did homer late in Game 2 to get the Dodgers one last insignificant run. But it took until the middle of the Series for those two to finally come out of hibernation. Maybe it has something to do with that piped-in "Rays home game" atmosphere. After all, the new Globe Life Field roof was closed on Friday for the first time in this postseason. Unfortunately for the Rays, Walker Buehler was open for business, and like the clearance guy on your favorite home-shopping network, he was dealing.

In Wednesday's Game 2, the "visiting" pitcher kept the "home" team hitless until the 5th while striking out 9 batters along the way. Bar set. And Buehler matched it. Game 3 featured only one walk-- erased on a double play-- before Manuel Margot connected for a two-bagger into the corner. And unlike Snell on Wednesday, Buehler would get through the 6th-- and strike out the side-- to finish the day with only 3 hits allowed and 10 opponents fanned. That lofty line had been done by only two other Dodgers pitchers in World Series history, Clayton Kershaw in 2017 and Sandy Koufax in 1965.

Meanwhile, on offense, it wasn't yet Corey Seager's turn to shine, but Justin Turner's. Following Brandon Lowe's lead, he homered as the third batter of the game, making 2020 the first World Series ever where both teams went yard in the top of the 1st. The only other Dodgers batters to hit a T1 homer in the World Series are Mickey Hatcher (1988), Ron Cey (1977), and Hi Myers (1916, off Babe Ruth).

But the Star Of The Game on Friday has to go to Austin Barnes, who had successfully executed four sacrifice bunts in his six seasons with the Dodgers. Bunting in general is a lost art in these days of everyone just wanting to mash homers, but when he came up in the 4th with Cody Bellinger on third and Joc Pederson on first, the time was right and Barnes laid down the perfect safety squeeze to score a run. There had not been such a play in the World Series since Jason Bartlett did it for the Rays in 2008 to score Cliff Floyd. But no worries, in his next at-bat in the 6th, with 2 outs and nobody on, Barnes went back to that standard Dodgers playbook of mashing homers. Barnes hit only one homer in the 60-game regular season, but his solo shot on Friday made him the second player in World Series history with a home run and a run-scoring squeeze bunt. The other was Hector Lopez of the Yankees, in Game 5 of the 1961 Series at Cincinnati (the runner being Johnny Blanchard).

Meanwhile, Mookie Betts apparently did not get the memo that we only get one taco regardless of how many bases he steals. Because both of Barnes's plays above (the squeeze bunt and the homer) were followed by Mookie hitting a single and then stealing second. He's the first player to have multiple multi-steal games in the same World Series since Omar Vizquel of the Indians in 1997. And remember that Joc Pederson was on first for that squeeze play and thus scored on the Betts single. That gave Mookie 2 hits, 2 steals, and at least 1 RBI in multiple games of the same World Series, a feat accomplished only by Cincinnati's Bobby Tolan in 1972 and Eddie Collins of the A's in 1910.

You've probably figured out that Game 3 was all Dodgers, right up until the bottom of the 9th when the aforementioned Randy Arozarena finally showed up. Because of the unwritten rule that says Kenley Jansen is not allowed to have a 1-2-3 inning in the postseason, Aroz smoked a 2-out homer to make Friday's final score 6-2. Only three homers in World Series history have been hit by a team trailing by 5+ and down to its final out... and Jansen has allowed two of them. Alex Bregman hit one in 2017; the other was by Al Simmons of the Athletics in 1931.

Walk Off This Way

Did we mention there's an unwritten rule that says Kenley Jansen can't have a 1-2-3 inning in the postseason? (Yes, we did. Last paragraph.) On to Game 4 on Saturday. Or should we say off to Game 4 on Saturday, because you already know how it's going to end. Sure did take a bunch of twists and turns to get there, though.

Justin Turner hit another 1st-inning homer. Forgot about that, didn't you? He became just the second batter in Dodgers postseason history with a 1st-inning homer in back-to-back games, after (who else?) Corey Seager in the 2016 Division Series at Nationals Park. Only two other players had homered in the 1st of back-to-back World Series games-- Alex Bregman last year, and fellow Dodger Mickey Hatcher in 1988. Combined with Brandon Lowe's shot in Game 2 (which seems so long ago already), it was the first time any World Series had seen a 1st-inning homer in three consecutive games.

In the 3rd Corey Seager finally made an appearance with his eighth home run of this postseason. There is absolutely an asterisk because the 2020 postseason has more games than any other in history, but Seager joined Barry Bonds (2002, and who knows more about asterisks?), Carlos Beltran (2004), Nelson Cruz (2011), and our good buddy Randy Arozarena as the only players to go yard eight times in one postseason.

One inning later, Randy said, mm, no, I'm not sharing that record, I'm setting it. He cranked a leadoff homer on the first pitch of the 4th to become the first player in history with 9 homers in a single postseason. And this is still not the good part. Max Muncy puts the Dodgers up 3-1 in the 5th with an RBi single on which he is thrown out by Hunter Renfroe trying to stretch it into a double. And it's always the guy who makes the great defensive play who leads off the next inning. Renfroe then homers to start the 5th and get the Rays back to within 3-2. Enrique Hernandez-- not pinch-hitting this time-- keeps the Dodgers ahead with an RBI double in the 6th. And then Brandon Lowe, the first batter faced by Pedro Baez, unleashes a 3-run bomb to flip the lead in favor of Tampa Bay, 5-4. Baez was the first pitcher in Dodgers postseason history to give up a lead-flipping homer to the first batter he faced upon entering the game.

Yeah, we're not done. Nowhere near it. Seager starts the 7th with a single and then is controversially held up at third when Justin Turner doubles. If you remember Game 3, you remember that Turner also had a homer and a double in that game. And the only other player in World Series history to homer and double in back-to-back games was another Dodger, Roy Campanella in 1955.

Now we've got second and third in the 7th inning of a 1-run game. Time for Joc Pederson, whom we haven't mentioned much, to come through as a pinch hitter. 2-run single off Nick Anderson, and yet another timing play where plate umpire Chris Guccione has to decide whether the run scored before the third out was made. Because Cody Bellinger is out at third on the throw, yet again from Hunter Renfroe in right. As Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark points out, it's one of those games nobody noticed except for us. Renfroe just collected a homer and two outfield assists, the first player in World Series history to do that. In fact, no team had its outfielders combine for a homer and two assists in a World Series game since the 1983 Orioles (Dan Ford, Gary Roenicke). But as for the single itself, Pederson is the first Dodgers batter to flip the lead in a World Series game since... yeah, you knew this link was coming somewhere... Kirk Gibson in 1988. It was also just the second lead-flipping single in the 7th or later of any World Series game; Dane Iorg's walkoff for the Royals in 1985 ("we go to a seventh!") is the other. When he singled in the 9th, Pederson also became the fourth player in World Series history with 2 hits and 2 RBI in a game he didn't start; the others are Brian Hunter (1991), Dusty Rhodes (1954), and Carl Furillo (1947).

Oh but hello, Kevin Kiermaier. Your solo homer in the bottom of the 7th got us back to 6-6 and actually meant that Pedro Baez blew his own save twice in the same game. It also meant that Baez joined Brandon Morrow (2017), Josh Fields (2017), and Russ Meyer (1953) as the only Dodgers relievers to give up multiple homers in a World Series game. And what's that in the 8th but a Chris Taylor leadoff double and then Corey Seager driving him home for another Dodgers lead. The last World Series game with four separate go-ahead hits was indeed in 2017, but it's not the one you probably thought of. It was Game 5, the one the Astros won 13-12 on an Alex Bregman walkoff. And speaking of that Game With All The Homers in 2017, Saturday was the first game in postseason history where a run scored in eight consecutive half-innings. That Astros/Dodgers game had a zero in B9 that broke their streak.

Did we get to the walkoff yet? No? Game 4 has already had enough back-and-forth excitement before Kevin Kiermaier singles and then Randy Arozarena walks with 2 outs in the 9th. This is, of course, against Kenley Jansen which brings us back to our original premise. But with the Rays down to their final strike, this happens. Brett Phillips, of a .196 average and 5 total RBIs in the regular season, drives home KK for the tie and then Arozarena takes advantage of the Dodgers' comedy of errors to score the game-winner. Regardlfess of whether you think the game-winner is an E8 (on Taylor for the bobble) or an E2 (on Smith for forgetting the ball), it's a play that we love to refer to as an "error-off", and it's the first one in any World Series game since Will Middlebrooks obstruction call in 2013. The only other walkoff errors in World Series play were in 1986 (yep, the Bill Buckner play), and a pair of thrown-away bunt attempts by the Orioles in 1969 and the A's in 1913.

For all their efforts, Justin Turner and Corey Seager became the first teammates in World Series history to each have 4 hits in a loss. They were also the first teammates in any postseason game to have 4 hits including a home run in a loss. And after scoring that game-winning run on the play at the plate, Randy Arozarena is probably overlooking the fact that he grounded into a double play and was also caught stealing. We're not. No player, for any team in any game, had collected 3 hits and 3 runs scored, but also a GIDP and a CS, since Rickie Weeks of the Brewers did so on April 30, 2013.

Phillips did not technically have the game-winning RBI, but he did have a batted ball that resulted in his team walking off despite trailing when he hit it. That hadn't happened in a World Series game since... yep, Joe Carter in 1993.

Wild Wild Life

In case Game 4 had too much drama for you, Game 5 is going to tone things down a notch by being a rematch of Kershaw/Glasnow from the opener. And Mookie Betts is going to put the Dodgers in front almost right from the beginning with a leadoff double. He also had one of those in the Wild Card round against Milwaukee, joining Chris Taylor (2017) as the only Dodgers batter with two in the same postseason. Corey Seager then singled home Betts for his 19th RBI of the postseason; again there's the asterisk of this year having more games than any other, but the only player with more in one postseason is David Freese in 2011 (21). Seager would later score after Glasnow uncorked two of his three wild pitches on the day; more on that in a second.

Yandy Diaz took care of Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter with his own leadoff single but then got erased on a double play. Joc Pederson put the Dodgers up 3-0 with a solo homer to start the 2nd, joning Duke Snider and Gil Hodges as the only Dodgers with five career World Series homers. And when Max Muncy led off the 3rd with another single, the Dodgers had become the ninth team to lead off the first three innings of a World Series game with base hits. They were also the eighth and the seventh, doing so in Games 1 and 7 of the 2017 Series with Houston.

They would not be the tenth, however, because Manuel Margot and Kevin Kiermaier also singled to start the Rays' 2nd and 3rd innings. That created just the second game in postseason history where each of the first six half-innings began with base hits; the other was 2014 NLCS 4 between the Cardinals and Giants. Diaz would then drive in Kiermaier with a triple, the first three-bagger in the Rays' short World Series history, but also making him the second Tampa Bay hitter ever to have a triple, a single, and an RBI in a loss in Arlington. Wade Boggs (remember he finished his career there?) did it on July 18, 1998.

You have to at least give the Rays some points for trying to be creative, though. Manuel Margot drew a walk to start the 4th (yes, another leadoff baserunner), then went to third on the first pitch when Chris Taylor fumbled a catch on a steal attempt. With 2 outs, why not deploy the old straight steal of home. It hadn't actually succeeded in a World Series game since Jackie Robinson pulled it off in 1955. Annnnd it still hasn't. Brad Fullmer of the Angels did get credit for a steal of home in the 2002 World Series, but that was as part of a delayed double steal. The last player to be caught stealing home in a World Series was Shane Mack of the Twins in 1991, with pitcher-turned-Fox analyst John Smoltz on the mound.

The Rays would leave Tyler Glasnow out for one more inning, which also meant one more solo home run by Max Muncy. That got Glasnow his own piece of postseason history as the first pitcher ever to allow multiple homers and throw 3 wild pitches in a game. The only other Rays hurler to do it, in any game, was Alex Cobb at Kansas City on August 29, 2017. And our last interesting-ness came in the 8th when Ji-Man Choi was announced as a pinch hitter for Diaz. That prompted Dave Roberts to finally remove Dustin May after six batters and parts of three innings, but that also caused Kevin Cash to go to righty Mike Brosseau instead of Choi. So Choi was announced as a pinch hitter but never actually had a plate appearance. And the same thing happened to him in Game 1. He's the second player in World Series history to get announced but not actually bat twice; Oakland's Don Mincher pulled it off in back-to-back games in 1972.

Strike It Up

If the Rays had to go out in six games, well, at least they went down swinging. And with the faces we've come to know over the past month. Remember how Brandon Lowe homered in Game 2 as Tampa Bay's second batter of the game? In Game 6 it was Randy Arozarena who batted second, and there's no way he's going down without a fight. He greeted Tony Gonsolin with yet another home run, his 10th of the postseason to set an all-time record. And we've been saying since Game 2 that you should get to your seat on time, because in every game since then a run has scored in the top of the 1st inning. There's never been a World Series where that happened in five different games, and the 1932 classic was the only one where it happened in four games consecutively.

So now let's turn things over to Blake Snell, of 9 strikeouts in Game 2. Betts/Seager/Turner, all swinging in the 1st. Will Smith and Cody Bellinger, both swinging in the 2nd. Chris Taylor at least breaks up the no-hitter in the 3rd, but look at the 4th. Seager/Turner/Max Muncy, all swinging again. Snell racked up 9 strikeouts in the first four frames while Dodgers pitchers were busy racking up 8 of their own. Once again Gonsolin played the role of "opener" with the Dodgers holding a series lead, and just as in Game 2 he gave way to Dylan Floro in the 2nd. And then Alex Wood in the 3rd. It was the first postseason game in history with 17 combined strikeouts in its first four innings, breaking a mark set by Orlando Hernandez and (!) Rick Reed of the Mets in 2000. Although Gonsolin gave up only the one run, he joined a small list of pitchers to have multiple World Series "starts" that didn't get through the 2nd inning; the others are Yu Darvish in 2017, Art Ditmar in 1960, and Fred Toney in 1921.

At some point on Tuesday it just felt like the Rays would not be able to cling to a 1-0 lead. We started putting together our "Dodgers win" notes even before the bottom of the 6th. That's when Snell was controversially lifted by Kevin Cash after only 73 pitches but a 1-out single to Austin Barnes-- completing the second time around the Dodgers' order and bringing Mookie Betts back up to the plate. Mookie quickly took advantage of Nick Anderson with a double to put runners at second and third. Then it got fun. Anderson scored Barnes by uncorking the second save-blowing wild pitch in World Series history; the other was famously thrown by Bob Stanley in 1986, just before the famous Bill Buckner error to force Game 7. (Stanley was later a special assistant to the minor-league team near us in Norwich, Conn., and maintains to this day that it was a passed ball.) Be that as it may, we're suddenly in a 1-1 tie and Snell is no longer eligible for the win. He's the first pitcher in World Series history to allow 2 hits, strike out 9+, and not get a win....

...And that happened in Game 2! The 5-inning rule prevented Snell from getting the win in that game; this time it was the blown save that blocked out that "W" box on the scoresheet. If you even expand this stat to cover the entire postseason, Snell is the first pitcher to have two such games (9 K, 2 hits, no win)-- and he did it in a week. Ah, but don't get too caught up in that. Because one pitch later, here comes your Series-winner. That's an FCX (fielder's choice, no out) at the plate, and if it looks familiar, yeah, the Dodgers had one of those in Game 1 also. This one, however, gave them the lead, and that hadn't happened in a World Series game in 83 years. The last such play without an error, so the runner just beat the throw, was off the bat of Carl Hubbell of the Giants in 1937; Johnny McCarthy was the runner who scored on it.

So the Dodgers now have their 2-1 lead and the "hometown faithful" (such as they are at our neutral site in Texas) get to start counting down the outs. Julio Urias gets to count down those outs also, because he got the last seven of them. Yandy Diaz got rung up to end the 7th. Urias had a 1-2-3 8th on only 10 pitches. Mookie Betts, just in case, deposits a home run over the center-field wall in the 8th to give us a bunch more notes. Remember he doubled back in the 6th to start the Dodgers' rally. Betts is only the second Dodgers leadoff batter with a homer, a double, and 2 runs scored in any postseason game, joining Davey Lopes in the opener of the 1978 NLCS against Philadelphia.

Urias got to stay out for the 9th, despite calls on Twitter for Dave Roberts to let Clayton Kershaw do his Madison Bumgarner impression and finish off a World Series clincher. On 13 pitches Urias blew through Manuel Margot, Mike Brosseau, and Willy Adames to secure the Dodgers' first championship in 32 years. But Urias had been in the game since the 7th. Since the modern save rule was codified in 1969, only three other pitchers have gotten a 7-out save (or longer) in a World Series clincher. MadBum is one. Steve Howe did it for the Dodgers in 1981. And Will McEnaney finished off the Reds' sweep of the Yankees in 1976. Adding to the fun, Urias went 7-up, 7-down in finishing the Dodgers' championship. Only one other pitcher in World Series history has gotten a 7-out save without allowing a single baserunner, and that wasn't in a clincher: Dick Hall of the Orioles did it in Game 2 of the 1970 Series, also against Cincinnati.

In the Dodgers' parade of pitchers, it was Victor Gonzalez who ended up getting the win by being in the game when the lead flipped. Gonzalez struck out Brandon Lowe, Manuel Margot, and Joey Wendle in order in the 6th, and thus also had the distinction of being the second pitcher in World Series history to allow 0 baserunners, strike out 3, and get the win in a title-clincher. Aurelio Lopez of the Tigers was the other, the last time Detroit won it all in 1984.

And speaking of droughts, with the Dodgers erasing their 32-year hiatus from hoisting the 30 little golden flags (which were only 26 at the previous hoisting), the longest time without a World Series win passes to those lovable Mets, who somehow survived Bob Stanley's wild pitch and Bill Buckner's error to win it all in 1986. The Tigers now rank second on the list, followed by the Orioles (1983) and Pirates (1979).

It only took us 96 days to crown a champion in this abbreviated 2020 season. Here's hoping circumstances allow for a much better 2021. But it will be fun-filled regardless, and we'll be along for the ride. It's only 155 days away.

As always, a tremendous thank-you to the incredible Baseball Reference, recently rebranded as "Stathead", for so much of the information that powers this column throughout the year. If you like researching stuff like this yourself, it's well worth the $8 per month. Also a shout-out to Retrosheet for their trove of pre-1900 data, and our friends at the other sites listed on the right-side links bar. We couldn't do it without you.

The Pennant Is Mightier

Does it already feel like the playoffs have lasted longer than the regular season did? It certainly has been a much-longer road for the teams who are still playing, which is ironic because for the first time ever there was no travel involved in the LCS round. The two neutral sites in Arlington and San Diego also meant no off-days to regroup. So those elusive little triangles (the pennants) came down to who wanted it more and which team was able to best navigate this weird season. And this round was mighty exciting.

Kiss From ARoz

After overpowering the Athletics in their Division Series, the Astros started the LCS round with a bang (yeah, we said it) when Jose Altuve went deep in the first inning of the first game. As will become a theme here, Altuve also did that in Game 1 of the 2017 Division Series against Boston, meaning he accounts for half the Astros' all-time total of 1st-inning Game 1 homers. Alex Bregman went back-to-back with him in that 2017 game, and the other was Carlos Beltran in the 2004 NLCS against St Louis. Thanks to this year's bizarre scheduling, the Astros also hit a 1st-inning homer at Petco Park back on August 23 courtesy of Kyle Tucker. The only other time they'd hit two there in the same year was its inaugural season, 2004, by Craig Biggio and Jose Vizcaino.

However, if you thought this was gonna be the start of a whole bunch of Astros highlights, well, no. Because that homer would end up being the Astros' only run of the game, the first postseason contest in their history where that happened. It was also the fifth time the Astros had scored in the 1st inning of a postseason game and then laid all goose eggs after that; not surprisingly, they lost all five games. Instead, Sunday's Game 1 is where we catch up with Randy Arozarena, or should we say, he catches up with Altuve. After the Astros squandered four baserunners in the 4th by hitting into a double play, "Aroz" (as we're going to call him, given how many times we're going to type it in this series) hits his own solo homer for a 1-1 tie. Turns out he homered in Game 1 of their Division Series against the Yankees, joining Ben Zobrist as the team's only players to go deep in multiple Games 1. (And Zobrist's were in different years.) In the next inning, Mike Zunino would drive in Willy Adames with an otherwise-unnotable RBI single, but when the teams combined for 12 baserunners in the last four frames and stranded all of them, the Rays were on the good end of a 2-1 squeaker. Blake Snell joined Andy Sonnanstine (2008 ALCS 4) as the only Rays pitchers to strike out a mere 2 batters and get a win. Framber Valdez, who gave up only 4 hits and struck out 8, still took the loss; only Justin Verlander (2017 WS 6) and Randy Johnson (1998 NLDS 4) had done that in Astros postseason history.

And speaking of strikeouts, Hunter Renfroe joined Austin Meadows (last year, also against Houston) as the only Rays batters with four of them in a postseason game. And when Aroz wasn't hitting game-tying homers, he was fanning as well; he joined Melvin Upton (2008 ALCS 2) as the only Rays batters with a homer and a 3-strikeout hat trick in the same postseason game.

Aroz is going to have 2 singles in Game 2 on Monday, but no homers. Sorry. However, a couple of his teammates are going to fill that void in a game that can only be described as a study in missed opportunities. Aroz's first single came with 2 outs in the 1st, after which Jose Altuve-- instead of homering-- committed a throwing error to extend the inning. Sometimes teams escape those with no damage. The Astros were not that team. Two pitches later, Manuel Margot cranks a 3-run homer that would end up being all the offense the Rays needed. That was Tampa Bay's first 3- or 4-run homer in the 1st inning of a postseason game, and the second one ever surrendered by Houston. Aaron Hicks took Justin Verlander deep in Game 5 of the ALCS last year. Only three Rays players have ever hit a 3- or 4-run homer at Petco Park, and two of them are this postseason. Kevin Kiermaier had one in the Division Series that was also played in San Diego, while Aubrey Huff hit one against the Padres in their first-ever visit on June 15, 2004. The Astros, meanwhile, had nine baserunners in the first four innings and managed to not score any of them. Their only RBI would come in the 6th when Carlos Correa hit a solo homer. Even in the 9th when the first three batters all singled, they only scored a run at the expense of a double play. Game 2 was the second time in Astros postseason history where they converted 10 or more hits into 2 or fewer runs; the other was also an LCS 2, in 1986 against the Mets. Because that Margot homer was unearned, Lance McCullers became the fifth pitcher in postseason history (any team) to strike out 11, give up 1 earned run, and lose. The previous was Blue Moon Odom for Oakland all the way back in 1972; Bob Turley of the Yankees also did it (1956) along with Brooklyn's Don Newcombe (1949) and another Athletics legend, Chief Bender (1911).

Altuve would commit a second throwing error later in the game; although this one did not cost any runs, it still made him just the second Astros player with a multi-error game in the postseason, after Julio Lugo in 2001. And Mike Zunino did add another homer to make the final score 4-2, but that was still only the Rays' fourth hit of the game. Counting the last game against the Yankees, they had three straight postseason games where they had no more than 6 hits, and they won all of them. The Dodgers did the same thing in the Division Series round; before this year only two teams had ever done it-- the 1974 A's and the 1919 Reds (who probably had some help). Monday's game also made the Rays the second team in postseason history to strike out 13 times, draw 0 walks, and win. The other was the 1973 Reds, for whom Joe Morgan batted second; the Rays' performance came, of course, on the same day that Morgan died.

Atlanta Rhythm Section

Someone say Dodgers? Over in Arlington they were battling the Braves for the National League pennant, and this one also looked like it might be over early. With all due respect to Walker Buehler and Max Fried, who are both very fine pitchers, you wouldn't figure on the two of them being a Game 1 postseason matchup. But here we are in 2020 and it largely lived up to the billing. Freddie Freeman and Enrique Hernandez traded solo homers to put us in a 1-1 deadlock and hey, remember Game 1 of the Braves' Wild Card Series? Fried and Buehler were the sixth opposing starters in postseason history to each allow 1 run, atrike out 7+, and get a no-decision. It wasn't until the 9th, with Buehler long gone and the Dodgers on pitcher number 5 (Blake Treinen), that the floodgates suddenly opened.

Austin Riley, leadoff homer to give Atlanta the lead. That was the sixth such homer in Braves postseason history, and the first since Rick Ankiel went deep in the 11th of 2010 NLDS 2 against the Giants. Ronald Acuña doubles. Marcell Ozuna singles him in. And then with Jake McGee on the hill, Ozzie Albies provides the final margin with another homer. For the Dodgers it was the first postseason game in team history where they'd surrendered multiple 9th-inning homers, and if you extend that to include extras, the only one is That Game With All The Homers, aka 2017 World Series Game 2. The Braves had only hit multiple 9th-inning homers in a postseason game once before, and that was last year when Acuña and Freeman did it against Carlos Martinez of the Cardinals.

The Braves kept that rhythm going in Game 2 on Tuesday, although there were some nerve-striking chords like a diminished 7th and a major 9th before it finally resolved. They piled up 7 runs, 5 off starter Tony Gonsolin, before the Dodgers even made a dent, and of course Freddie Freeman homered again. He was the first Braves batter to homer in Games 1 and 2 of a series since... oh yeah. Remember how Dansby Swanson and Travis d'Arnaud both did that last week? No team's ever had three players do it in the same postseason. Gonsolin, for his part, only gave up 3 hits and struck out 7; the hits were just improperly timed around a couple of walks. Only one other pitcher in postseason history had given up 5 runs on 3 hits with 7 K's... and it's the guy who started yesterday, Walker Buehler. (He didn't do it yesterday, though. Though it was against the Braves, in their Division Series from 2018.)

Now let's make some music. With apologies to Bob Seger and Pete Seeger, it was Corey Seager who somehow turned a seventh into a power chord by mashing a 3-run homer in the Dodgers' half of the 7th inning. Seager's going to end up making a lot of music by the end of this series, but for now he was the fourth Los Angeles Dodger (1958) to hit a 3- or 4-run homer that broke up a shutout of 7 or more, that late in a game. Justin Ruggiano and Carl Crawford (whom we forgot was ever a Dodger) both hit them in 2015, but before that the only one was by Tommy Davis on June 16, 1963. As for hitting a postseason homer with the Dodgers trailing by 7 runs, at any point, Seager's was the sixth; Adrian Gonzalez and Howie Kendrick both hit them in a 2015 NLDS game with the Mets.

Ozzie Albies' homer would make the game 8-3 in the 9th, and watch out for those ninths. Josh Tomlin needs 3 outs before he gives up 5 runs. And because Baseball In 2020, neither of those things happened. Mookie Betts single. Seager doubles him in, joining Max Muncy (August 29), Casey Blake (2009), and Charles Johnson (1998) as the only Dodgers to homer and double in the same game in Arlington. Speaking of Muncy, guess who's about to clobber a 2-out, 2-run homer. There's your third. (Third run, third interval in the chord, however you want to, um, play.) The Dodgers had only hit one other multi-run homer when trailing with 2 outs in the 9th of a postseason game. You may have heard of it. And now Albies' homer turns out to be (heh) key, because he also misplays Will Smith's bouncy little number that should have ended this mess. And then scores on a Cody Bellinger triple with the Dodgers down to their final out. Bellinger also hit one of those at Coors Field in September 2018; only Willie Davis has done it twice in Los Angeles Dodgers history. And you might remember Bellinger hitting another triple just last week, the one that put the final nail in the Cardinals' coffin in the Division Series by turning a 10-3 win into a 12-3 win. He's the first player in postseason history to have multiple triples with 2 outs in the 9th inning.

But as we said, our ninth is going to resolve with a nice harmonious flourish when Mark Melançon gets the final out to strand Bellinger at third and allow the Braves to escape 8-7, and 2-0 in the series. Amazingly, he's the first pitcher in Braves postseason history-- even including retroactive saves before 1969-- to be credited with a save when the only out he got was the final one.

Everything's Coming Up Arozes

Back in San Diego, Jose Altuve certainly knows how to start things with a bang. Wait, didn't we go here once already? Yep, we sure did. This time the Astros were the designated home team in the all-neutral-site series, so Altuve's 1st-inning homer in Game 3 came in the bottom half. But otherwise, more of the same; Tuesday's blast was Altuve's sixth 1st-inning homer in postseason play, tying Albert Pujols for the most all-time. Aroz hit a double, Kyle Tucker went first-to-third on a single, but neither team really did anything for a few more innings. It was the top of the 6th when our buddy Aroz leads off with a single and then is safe at second on yet another Altuve throwing error. Although this one only led to 1 run, it was enough to flip the momentum and start The Big Inning. Two more singles, including a 2-run job by Joey Wendle to flip the lead in the Rays' favor. In their limited postseason history, the Rays had never had a lead-flipping single of any kind. Next came a sacrifice bunt by Manuel Margot, the first successful sac bunt by any team in this entire postseason. Thanks to the shortened schedule, the Rays became the first team in MLB history to have 0 sac bunts in the regular season and then lay one down in the playoffs. Then it got fun.

Kevin Kiermaier gets hit by a pitch to load the bases. Very next pitch, to Willy Adames... plunk. As we've seen, it's not hard to be the first in Rays postseason history to do something, but Adames is their first-ever bases-loaded HBP. He's the second one the Astros have ever issued, after Roberto Osuna plunked Mitch Moreland of the Red Sox, also in Game 3 of the ALCS (two years ago). And it was the first time Rays batters had gotten hit by consecutive pitches since Braves reliever Jonny Venters plunked Matt Joyce and Carlos Peña on May 20, 2012. Hunter Renfroe put the icing on the inning-- and the Rays' 5-2 win to go up 3-0 in the series-- with a pinch-hit double, another first in Rays postseason history. And one more for the record books, it was the Rays' first-ever postseason game where they scored 5+ runs with all of them coming in the same inning. They only did that once in the shortened 2020 regular season, July 28 against Atlanta.

So heading to Game 4, it certainly looked possible that the Rays would sweep the Astros' season right into the proverbial trash can. But Jose Altuve knows something about starting games with a bang. Oh yeah, he did it again. Once again it was only a solo shot thanks to Michael Brantley grounding into a double play immediately before him. But it broke that tie with Albert Pujols by being Altuve's seventh 1st-inning homer in the postseason; Pujols (2004 against the Astros) is the only other player to hit three in one series. Altuve then doubled in another run to make it 2-0 in the 3rd. But you know what hasn't happened in a couple days? Right, Randy Arozarena hasn't homered. And the top of the 4th seemed like the perfect time, especially right after Austin Meadows singled and it's a 2-run shot to tie the game. That's his third game-tying homer of this postseason, most in Rays history (of course), and just the third player to hit three in a single postseason. The others are Alex Rodriguez in 2009 and Albert Belle in 1995.

Altuve would ground into a double play to end the 5th, one of four GIDPs by the Astros in the game. However, this one came after George Springer, who hasn't gotten much air time yet in this series, hit his own 2-run homer to take that lead right back. It was the second time in Houston's postseason history that they'd hit multiple go-ahead homers in the same game off the same pitcher; Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent took Woody Williams of the Cardinals deep in 2004 NLCS 1. Springer would finish with his 53rd career 3-hit game as leadoff batter, jumping ahead of Altuve's 52. (He's still got a long way to Craig Biggio's 139.) And while Springer's dinger held up for the win, it wasn't without some tension in the 9th. Willy Adames hit a 2-out double to score Joey Wendle, shockingly the Rays' first postseason RBI double when down to their final out. And Aroz went on to another hat trick after that 4th-inning homer; you might remember that he had a dinger and 3 strikeouts in Game 1. He's the first player in MLB history to have two such games in the postseason (for any team, in the same series, in the same season, anything).

I Eight Myself For Loving You

We've made a lot of jokes this year about the cardboard cutouts being in their seats in time for the 1st-inning action. And we certainly hope they didn't miss Jose Altuve's 1st-inning antics in San Diego. But back in Arlington, let's hope that the only actual people to see any MLB games this year didn't forget the proper procedures. Because in Game 3 even nine Jose Altuves, which is just shy of 49 feet, by the way, wouldn't have been a match for the Dodgers' outburst. First-pitch single. First-pitch double. Two outs. That seems good. If the Braves can just get Will Smith to end the inning, they will escape with only the 1 run scoring.

So the good news is, Will Smith did end the inning. The bad news is, he didn't do it until his second at-bat. In this at-bat he doubled home another run, leading to Helpful Mound Visit. Whatever that great advice was, it ended with a 5-pitch walk to Cody Bellinger and another Helpful Mound Visit. If only the helpful advice had been, don't give up back-to-back homers to the next two batters, but apparently it wasn't. By the time the third Mound Visit rolls around, Kyle Wright has gotten charged with 7 runs despite getting only 2 outs, and the Braves are having all kinds of bad flashbacks to that 10-run 1st inning they gave up to the Cardinals in last year's Division Series Game 5. Because Wright, and Mike Foltynewicz who started that one, are two of the three starters in postseason history to give up 7 runs and not finish the 1st inning. And the other came as a direct result of that game; the Cardinals advanced to the NLCS where Dakota Hudson promptly had the same line against the Nationals. It's also worth mentioning that one of Folty's runs was unearned, so Wright is the first Braves starter to give up 7 earned runs without finishing the 1st since Craig McMurtry did it against the Cardinals on May 27, 1984.

Grant Dayton gets summoned to replace Wright, which we found humorous only because the Wright Brothers of aviation fame began their career in Dayton, Ohio. Unfortunately, the baseballs aren't done flying either. Corey Seager comes up again and manages to drive in his second run of the inning and advance Mookie Betts to third. Then it got weird. Dayton's first pitch to Justin Turner bounced away and Betts came racing home with an eighth run. And instead the Braves actually challenged the call, admitting that their own pitcher had actually hit Turner, but that by rule would be a dead ball, sending Betts back to third and taking the run off the board. And it worked. Back to 7-0 we go, now with the bases loaded. And yyyyyeah, we sure that was a good idea? Max Muncy grand slam. It's the fifth one in Dodgers postseason history (Enrique Hernandez 2017, James Loney 2008, Dusty Baker 1977, Ron Cey 1977), and it makes the score 11-0. Eleven. Remember that 10-run inning the Braves gave up last year? That was the old record. The last time the Dodgers scored 11 runs in an inning... they weren't in Los Angeles and the Braves weren't in Atlanta. It was August 8, 1954, in a 20-7 rout of the Reds. Their last 11-run 1st inning was also their largest overall inning in team history, a 15 that they also dropped on Cincinnati on May 21, 1952. Wednesday also became the first time the Dodgers had hit 3 homers in any postseason inning, and the first time any team had done it in a 1st.

Hey Grant, how about taking one for the team? Cody Bellinger, leadoff homer in the 2nd. Corey Seager, 1-out homer in the 3rd. Muncy doubles and Bellinger drives him in. By the time the Braves record their ninth out, they've surrendered 15 runs. Wright and Dayton became the first teammates in Braves history (to 1876) to give up 7 runs and 2 homers each in the same game. Dayton joined Seattle's Paul Abbott (2001 ALDS 3) as the only relievers to allow 8 and 3; he was also Atlanta's first pitcher to do it since Craig Skok on July 30, 1978. The one bright spot would be Braves fans getting to know Huascar Ynoa, who went on to pitch the next four innings and give up just one hit. The only other Braves pitcher to do that in a postseason game was Warren Spahn in Game 5 of the 1948 World Series.

Seager and Muncy both ended up with a homer and a double; the only other Dodgers teammates to do that in the postseason were Russell Martin and Justin Turner in last year's Division Series. In Muncy's case, he also walked twice, duplicating his line from that World Series game two years ago where he hit the walkoff homer in the 18th. Only four other players have had multiple 2-XBH, 2-BB games in the postseason: Carlos Beltran, George Springer, Chipper Jones, and Babe Ruth. And for Seager, it sure looks a lot like his Game 2 outing of a homer and a double. The only other Dodgers batter to do that in consecutive postseason games is Roy Campanella in the 1955 World Series.

And as for the 15 runs? Well, thanks to Ynoa's four scoreless frames, the Dodgers did all of that damage in the first three innings off Wright and Dayton and then didn't score again for the rest of the game. They are the first team to reach 15 that quickly, and then stop scoring, since the Tigers posted a 16-2 win over Boston-- in the form of 7-8-1 and then all zeroes-- on June 26, 1946.

Oh hey, we haven't even gotten to Game 4 yet. Let's skip past the pleasantries of trading solo homers again, although this time it was Marcell Ozuna and not Freddie Freeman. Besides, home runs were not the problem in the 6th inning, which might qualify as Clayton Kershaw's "one inning too many" in this case. Instead give us all the doubles. Ronald Acuña started the inning at second base after a single-plus-error, after which Freeman and Ozuna both had RBI doubles to knock Kershaw out. Ozzie Albies greeted Brusdar Graterol with a hit, after which Dansby Swanson doubled home two more runs. Only 12 teams in postseason history have hit 3 RBI doubles in the same inning, and wouldn't you know it, the previous one was the Cardinals in that 10-run inning last year.

The Braves eventually collect 6 runs in the 6th, which lands Ozuna at the plate again to start the 7th. So why not another homer. Yes, that got a ton of references to being the first multi-homer game for Atlanta in the postseason since Chipper Jones in 2003. But it was a different Jones-- Andruw-- who was the last to have 3 total hits, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI in a postseason game, doing so in the 1996 World Series against the Yankees. The only one before Andruw was in the Braves' immediately-preceding game, NLCS 7 of that same year by Fred McGriff. And three extra-base hits had only been done by four other Braves postseason hitters: Bret Boone (1999), Javy Lopez (1996), McGriff again (1995), and Hank Gowdy (1914). Ozuna also became just the second Braves player to have a multi-homer game in Arlington; that's also Andruw Jones, in a 6-3 win over the Rangers on June 8, 2002.

Bryse Wilson, who got the 10-2 victory once the Braves were done piling up late runs, gave up just the solo homer to Edwin Rios. Kevin Millwood (1999 NLDS 2) and Tom Glavine (1995 WS 6) are the only other Braves pitchers to throw 6+ innings and give up only 1 hit in a postseason game. And look at 10-2... right after 15-3 by the Dodgers in the prior game. It's the first postseason series with an 8-run win by each team since the Oakland/Minnesota Division Series of 2002... but it's also the first time in postseason history those opposing 8-run wins came in consecutive games.

Some of you already giggled when you saw the title of this post because you had the same flashback. And we'd never let a good flashback go to waste. Intermission!

It All Begins Where It Ends

Back at Petco Park, the Astros know a little something about starting games with a bang. Have you had enough of this yet? Because they haven't. Imagine if we said Game 5 featured another 1st-inning homer, the Astros' fourth one of the series. Only seven teams have hit four 1st-inning taters in a series; the Astros are three of them (also 2017 and 2004), and the Rays (2008 ALCS) are another. The 2015 Mets, 2011 Tigers, and 2004 Cardinals round out the list. The only neat wrinkle to this one is that it wasn't Jose Altuve. It was George Springer, seemingly inspired by his go-ahead knock in Game 4, and it happened on the first pitch the Astros saw from John Curtiss. Like so many things Astros-leadoff-related, Craig Biggio hit their only other leadoff homer in a postseason game, taking Jeff Suppan of the Cardinals deep in 2004 NLCS 7. It also allowed Springer to retake the Astros' postseason homer record from Altuve, 19-18, and trailing only Manny Ramirez (29), Bernie Williams (22), and Derek Jeter (20) in MLB history.

Brandon Lowe promptly hit his own solo homer to tie the game, after which Michael Brantley would gave Houston the lead again with a 3rd-inning single. Here we should note that both "starters" are already out of the game as both teams hedge against a Game 6 and the schedule not having any off-days. Curtiss faced just 5 batters and allowed only the home run to Springer, while Luis Garcia gave up 2 walks and hit a batter but came out after 2 innings. He was the first starter in postseason history with that line (0 H but 2 BB and an HBP), and the first Astros starter pulled from a postseason game with a no-hitter still intact. It was the second game in postseason history where both starters allowed no more than 1 hit but neither one saw the 3rd inning. The other was the infamous 2011 ALDS game between the Yankees and Tigers (CC Sabathia & Justin Verlander) that got suspended by rain after only 9 outs.

For each Astros 1st-inning homer there must be a matching Randy Arozarena homer. That happened in the 5th, and it gave him nine games this postseason with at least 1 extra-base hit and at least 1 run scored. The only other players with that many such performances are Alex Rodriguez (2009), Nelson Cruz (2010), and Barry Bonds (2002, 10x). And this time Aroz combined it not with 3 strikeouts, but with an outfield assist to nail Altuve trying to stretch a single into a double. Yeah, by now you're not surprised that's a first in Rays postseason history. And when Ji-Man Choi hits a game-tying homer in the 8th to join Lowe's from earlier, well... no. That's not a first in Rays postseason history. Evan Longoria and Melvin Upton both hit game-tying homers in 2008 ALCS 2 off Josh Beckett. Choi's homer did give Josh James another blown save such as the one he had in Game 3 against the Athletics last week. Only Dave Smith in 1986 has blown multiple saves for the Astros in the same postseason.

You probably know how this ended. In the exact same way that Game 2 of last year's ALCS ended-- with Carlos Correa hitting a walkoff homer. The only other players in postseason history with multiple walkoff homers are Bernie Williams and David Ortiz. The last team with a walkoff win to stave off elimination in the LCS round (i.e., prevent the opponent from winning a pennant) was the 2008 Red Sox, who also delayed the Rays' celebration by at least one more day. The only other Astros batter to hit a go-ahead homer in the 9th inning at Petco was Lance Berkman off Trevor Hoffman on April 2, 2008. And yes, combined with Springer going yard on the first pitch the Astros saw, they were the first team in postseason history to hit a leadoff homer and a walkoff homer in the same game.

Still, however, the Rays are only one win away from the World Series, so surely they'll figure it out in time for Game 6. Well, in a normal year maybe, but the neutral-site setup of this year's LCS round means no off-days and no rest for the weary. There was rest for starters Framber Valdez and Blake Snell in a rematch of Game 1 (not Game 3 as you might see with the off-days). And after combining for a 2-1 game on Sunday, Friday looked much the same, just with the numbers reversed. Snell was notably unhappy about being removed in the 5th inning, maybe because the Rays bullpen gave up five more runs in addition to the two inherited ones that Snell left out there. George Springer would do the initial damage with a bases-loaded single to flip the lead from 1-0 to 2-1. Jose Altuve had a similar play in the opener of the Division Series against Oakland; they are two of the three lead-flipping singles in Astros history after Jason Castro had one in 2015.

Kyle Tucker added a home run in the 6th and a sacrifice fly in the 7th as Shane McClanahan kept giving up base hits. He was the first pitcher in Rays postseason history to allow 5 hits while getting no more than 5 outs, while Tucker became the first player in Astros postseason history with that combo of a homer and a sac fly in the same game. The damage could have been a lot worse after Jose Alvarado walked the bases loaded to start the 8th. However, in a "three true outcomes" special, the next three Houston batters all struck out to keep any more runs from scoring. Three teams in postseason history have "accomplished" three consecutive bases-loaded strikeouts, and two of them are this year; the Dodgers did it in their Division Series with the Padres. The other was the Cubs in 2003 against Atlanta's Mike Hampton.

Manuel Margot did make some effort to earn the Rays another much-cherished off-day, leading off the 7th with a solo homer and then tacking on a 2-run shot in the 8th. He was the 11th player in postseason history to homer multiple times in the 7th or later of the same game, but don't forget, he's pretty familiar with Petco Park as well. He played three full seasons there as a member of the Padres following his MLB debut as a September callup in 2016. And thus he had a pair of multi-homer games at the stadium for San Diego prior to the one Friday for the Rays. Only five other players have done that since it opened in 2004: Jason Heyward, Raul Ibañez, Adam LaRoche, Giancarlo Stanton, and Justin Upton.

Incense And Pepperminter

So while the Astros are busy becoming the second team in MLB history to force a Game 7 after losing the first three, we still haven't settled things over in the National League either. A.J. Minter was given the odd task of starting Game 5 for the Braves, odd only because he'd never started a game in the regular season yet. Granted, the definition of a "starter" has been devolving over the last few years of "openers" and "bullpen games", but Minter was still the first pitcher in MLB history whose first career start came in the playoffs. And while he was only expected to play the "opener" role, he got all the way through the Dodgers' order while allowing only a double to Justin Turner. And oh by the way, he struck out seven of the other eight Los Angeles batters, putting Minter in rarified air among postseason starters. Only two other pitchers have ever struck out 7+ while allowing no more than one baserunner-- Don Larsen and Roy Halladay, who own the only two no-hitters in postseason history.

However, there was not enough Minter to last the entire game, and things started to turn when Corey Seager homered (again!) off Tyler Matzek in the 4th. But we all know the story of this game, and possibly of the entire series: Will Smith homered off Will Smith. It's already broken the Internet, so we'll just point out that it was the third lead-flipping homer for the Dodgers in a game where they stood to get eliminated; Cody Bellinger (2018 NLCS 7) and Adrian Gonzalez (2016 NLDS 4) hit the others. And after that, nothing else that happened in the game would have mattered anyway, so let's just have Jacob Webb give up three more runs for the final tally of 7-3. Two of those did come on a second homer by Corey Seager, which lofted him into some record books. It broke a tie with Duke Snider (1952), Gil Hodges (1956), and Dusty Baker (1977) for the most RBI in a postseason series-- Seager temporarily has 10 of them-- and it created a tie for the most homers in a Dodgers postseason series with Snider and Steve Garvey (1978). Seager also became the first Dodgers hitter ever to have a multi-homer game in Arlington. And Mookie Betts, in addition to making a shoetop catch that resulted in a strange (9)-2-5 double play on appeal, had 2 hits and a steal on offense. Turns out he did the same thing in Game 2, joining Maury Wills and Davey Lopes as the only Dodgers leadoff batters with two such games in the same postseason.

There's a reason we said Seager "temporarily" had 10 RBIs and also 4 homers in the series. Because, yeah, that lasted two batters. In Game 6 on Saturday, Seager destined us to another Game 7 with a solo homer in the 1st inning, giving him sole possession of the Dodgers' homer and RBI marks for both a single series and an entire postseason. And it wasn't long until Justin Turner also went yard-- two pitches, in fact, generating yet another set of back-to-back homers. Remember that Joc Pederson and Edwin Rios did it in Game 3; the two from this week are the only sets in Dodgers postseason history to happen in the 1st inning.

So yes, the Dodgers are up 2-0 going to the 2nd, but in another rematch of Max Fried against Walker Buehler, the Braves connect for three straight singles to start the inning. And they do nothing. Buehler strikes out two batters and creates the third instance in Braves postseason history of three hits to start an inning, but 0 runs being scored. The others were in 1991 and 1992, both against the Pirates; one involved a double play and the other turned on a forceout at home. Buehler would end up truly "scattering" 7 hits, all singles, and walking zero batters to also give up zero runs. Only three other Dodgers pitchers had surrendered 7 hits but 0 runs in a postseason game, and all of them pitched complete games in the World Series-- Clem Labine (1956), Johnny Podres (1955), and Burleigh Grimes (1920).

The Braves did get one run back in the 7th when Nick Markakis led off with a triple and then Ronald Acuña doubled him around. Those hits came against Blake Treinen, who had just worked two perfect innings and gotten the win in Game 5 on Friday. You're forgiven if you don't know any of the other three Dodgers relievers to give up a triple and a double in a postseason game. Ron Perranoski, who would go on to lead the majors in saves with Minnesota in 1969, and who just passed away earlier this month, did it in 1965; the others are Russ Meyer in 1953 and Hal Gregg in 1947.

All Seven And We'll Watch Them Fall

The more things change, the more they stay the same. We jammed 12 games into 6 days; early in the week, it looked obvious that the Rays and Braves were going to advance, and yet here we are on Saturday night still with nothing settled before the World Series starts on Tuesday. Because we have, for the fifth time in the LCS format (2004, 2003, 1973, 1972), two winner-take-all games still to be played.

Yet by now we kinda have some themes. Like, say, a 1st-inning homer. The only question in ALCS Game 7 was which of our heroes was going to hit it-- Jose Altuve or Randy Arozarena. Altuve did send a long fly ball to center in his turn, but not long enough as Kevin Kiermaier hauled it in. So of course it was Aroz essentially winning the pennant for the Rays early with his 2-run dinger. That second run was compliments of Manuel Margot, who became the second player in MLB history to lead off a winner-take-all game by getting hit with a pitch. The other was all the way back in the 1909 World Series, Bobby Byrne of the Pirates (by Detroit's Bill Donovan). Specific to an LCS winner-take-all game, it was the sixth multi-run homer in a 1st inning, and the first since David Ortiz unloaded on Kevin Brown of the Yankees in 2004. And after his 1st-inning homers in Games 1 and 4, Aroz is one of just four players to hit three 1st-inning homers in a single postseason. If you've been counting, you know that one of the others is Altuve, and another also did it for Tampa Bay, Melvin Upton in 2008. (The member without a connection to this series is Albert Pujols.)

In another repeat moment, Mike Zunino would add a solo homer in the 2nd; you might remember he and Aroz joining the "A-to-Z" homer club in Game 2 of the Division Series round. And once again you have to go back to 2004 to find the first time any team homered in the 1st and 2nd innings of a winner-take-all LCS game; Ortiz was followed by Johnny Damon in that Red Sox/Yankees tilt. Both of Saturday's homers came off Astros starter Lance McCullers, who became the first pitcher in LCS history (1969) to give up 2 homers in a winner-take-all game and also take the loss. Yet, repeating his line from Game 2, McCullers also struck out 7+ Rays around those two homers; he is also the first pitcher in postseason history to have multiple 2-HR, 7-K games in the same series.

Zunino would add the Rays' final run with a sac fly in the 6th, and guess what, that just happened yesterday also. It wasn't Zunino, but Kyle Tucker of the Astros, who had both a homer and a sac fly in Game 6. That was the eighth occurrence this postseason of a player with that stat line; the previous record for such a thing had been three, and there were a total of eight players who did it in the entire decade from 2010-19. Only one other postseason series had it happen in back-to-back games, the 1998 ALDS between Boston (Nomar Garciaparra) and Cleveland (David Justice).

The Astros were kept off the board once again by Charlie Morton, who you probably already know is the first pitcher in history to get a win in four winner-take-all games. Only two others have done it for multiple teams as Morton has; they are Francisco Liriano and Randy Johnson. Morton was also on the mound for the Astros' 2017 Game 7 against the Yankees and gave up just 2 hits in that game as well. Since the pennants moved to a postseason activity in 1969, Morton is the first pitcher to give up 2 or fewer hits in multiple pennant-winners. Carlos Correa did make it interesting with a 2-run single after the Astros loaded the bases in the 7th, such that he finished the 2020 postseason with 17 RBI. He's the tenth player all-time-- and first since Eric Hosmer in 2015-- to do that, but he's the first of those 10 players to rack up 17 RBI without reaching the World Series.

And speaking of reaching the World Series, San Diego got its major-league team as part of the same expansion that necessitated the LCS round in 1969. As a result, only one other pennant has been won in San Diego, the Padres' own from 1984, with Goose Gossage on the hill for the final out.

Ring My Bellinger

Our last loose end is the matter of who the Rays will meet when they get to Arlington. And for a couple of innings, Dustin May made it seem as if it may be the Braves. In the strange world of trying to "bullpen" a Game 7, May was slated to be used as an "opener", and he opened by throwing four straight balls to Ronald Acuña. That was only the fourth leadoff walk in a winner-take-all LCS game, and the Braves have been involved in three of them. John Smoltz, who was of course calling Sunday's game for TBS, issued the previous one to Pittsburgh's Alex Cole in 1992, while Lonnie Smith drew one for the Braves the year prior. The other was Catfish Hunter to Baltimore's Al Bumbry in 1973.

May, however, didn't stop there. He promptly threw "ball 5" to Freddie Freeman. And 6. And 7. And 8. That was the first time in postseason history that the first two batters in a winner-take-all game had been given free passes, and in the era of complete pitch counts (1988), only one Dodgers hurler did it in the regular season on eight pitches. Terry Adams walked Tony Womack and then Danny Bautista of the Diamondbacks on September 28, 2001. Marcell Ozuna at least saw two strikes, but he hit one of them for a single, the first RBI base hit to occur in a WTA game before the first out since Craig Biggio's leadoff homer in 2004.

After Dansby Swanson homered in the 2nd, it was time for Will Smith to declare "Independence Day" from the Dodgers' deficit. Max Muncy's double put runners at second and third, and Smith drove them both home with a single up the middle. We'll call this one the B-side of Smith's big hit on Friday, but both of them qualify as multi-run hits that either tied or took the lead in a potential elimination game. Only one other batter in Dodgers postseason history has two such hits; it's Steve Garvey, and his came four years apart in different series.

It was now Gonsolin's turn to issue two walks, and Austin Riley's turn to hit the single that looked like it might start another Braves rally. They'd had just three other go-ahead hits in any winner-take-all game in their postseason history, and they had two in the first 4 innings on Sunday. Except, in a particularly-egregious case of the TOOTBLANs because it's Game 7, Swanson and Riley both get tagged out in a fielder's choice double play. In postseason history we found only one other double play that started with runners on second and third (not first, so no one is forced), where neither out was on the batter. And naturally it was in 1909.

That left the Braves with only a 3-2 lead, and Enrique Hernandez may come off the bench to say something about that. Only three other batters had launched a pinch-hit homer in any winner-take-all game: Chris Heisey (2016), Troy O'Leary (2003), and David Justice (2001), and Hernandez was the first Dodgers pinch hitter with a tying or go-ahead homer in any postseason game since... yep, Kirk Gibson in 1988. Julio Urias now comes into the game to keep the Braves from scoring again; he not only does that, he ends up not allowing them a single baserunner. More on that after Cody Bellinger essentially claims the pennant with a monster home run in the 7th. Only one other player in Dodgers history had smacked a go-ahead homer in the 7th or later of a WTA game, and that one also led to a pennant: Rick Monday against the Expos in 1981.

Urias then needed only 10 pitches to blow through the Braves in the 9th, and when Bellinger caught Austin Riley's fly ball to claim the pennant for good, Urias had also joined an elite club. Only three pitchers have thrown 3+ perfect innings and gotten the win in any postseason game, and the other two weren't clinchers. Francisco Rodriguez did it in Game 2 of the 2002 World Series against the Giants, and you have probably already gotten the other one-- because what beats three perfect innings but nine perfect innings?

Will this be the year we see another perfect game in the World Series? The Dodgers are back in it. Only one way to find out: On to Arlington.

Continental Division

You may be familiar with the geologic phenomenon that is the Continental Divide, an imaginary line running from Alaska to Chile that separates water flowing east from water flowing west. For this week, then, it seemed appropriate that we divide our eight teams, send half of them west, half of them east, have three of their stadiums host games not involving the home team, and thanks to two roofs and "southern California", not worry about water at all.

Throwing It All Away

With the Dodgers and Padres both advancing through the Wild Card round to face each other in the NLDS, it makes sense that Dodger Stadium and Petco Park would both be hosting Division Series games this week.

It's 2020, nothing makes sense. Because while it's true that those parks did host games, neither the Dodgers nor Padres played in any of them. Nope, they got banished to the other side of the mountains to meet each other at Globe Life Field in Arlington, because why not.

Things took an unfortunate turn early for the Padres when Game 1 starter Mike Clevinger blew out his elbow six batters into the series. And that was after walking three of them and throwing a wild pitch along the way, becoming the first starter in Padres history (regular or postseason) to do that despite allowing 0 hits. (Why swing?) The only other postseason pitchers with 0 hits but 3 walks and a wild pitch are Detroit's Anibal Sanchez, in the 2013 ALCS game where he tossed 6 no-hit frames, and Baltimore's Mike Cuellar in 1974. That forced the Padres to cobble together the rest of the game with their bullpen, although eventually it seemed like that might have been the plan all along. (Dinelson Lamet and Chris Paddack were notably left off the series roster.) By the time Mookie Betts finally broke up the no-hitter in the 6th, the Padres were on their sixth pitcher already (Garrett Richards), meaning they were just the second team in postseason history to have five different pitchers appear in a game without giving up a hit. The first team to do that... was the Padres in the final Wild Card game last Friday, and those were not consecutive.

That's not to say the Dodgers didn't have plenty of people hanging around first base. Four of those five 0-hit pitchers still walked somebody, and by the end of the game the Padres had issued 10 free passes, thrown 3 wild pitches, and hit a batter. Only one other team in postseason history had been that generous to an opponent... and they won! The Blue Jays pulled it off in the opener of their 1993 ALCS against Chicago. Ignoring the hit batter for a moment, only once before in team history had the Padres issued 10 walks and thrown 3 wild pitches, and that was also against the Dodgers. It was June 28, 1969, in San Diego's first season at the major-league level, and it ended with the worst home loss in Padres history (19-0).

The hit batter in question was pinch-hitter Enrique Hernandez, who as it turns out, also got plunked while pinch-hitting for Yu Darvish in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. He's the first batter in postseason history to have multiple PH HBPs, and continuing our theme of Things That Aren't Hits, Corey Seager broke a 1-1 tie with a 6th-inning sacrifice fly. He also did that in the 2017 World Series, off Justin Verlander in Game 6, and is the first batter in postseason history with a pair of go-ahead sac flies in the 6th or later. Garrett Richards would issue two more walks and another wild pitch after that lone hit by Mookie Betts; ultimately the Dodgers finished the contest with 5 runs on just 4 hits. The only other team in postseason history to do that without homering were the 1947 Yankees (who scored all their runs in one inning) and the 1919 Reds (in a game against Lefty Williams, who wasn't really trying to get them out).

Game 2 on Wednesday is going to be remembered, if at all, for the ending, so we'll blow through the early part. Corey Seager did collect a pair of doubles and a stolen base, joining Justin Turner (2015 NLDS) and Maury Wills (1965 WS) as the only Dodgers to do that in a postseason game. He was also the third Dodgers batter with a multi-double game in Arlington; Mark Grudzielanek and Alex Cora did it in the same interleague series at the old park in June 2000. Drew Pomeranz then let in two inherited runs in the 7th to give the Dodgers a 6-3 lead. And apparently they knew exactly how long the leash was. Long enough for Kenley Jansen to give up a single to Jake Cronenworth and then a double to Mitch Moreland, just the second pinch-hit RBI double in Padres postseason history in the 8th or later. Ruben Rivera hit the other against the Yankees' Mike Stanton in Game 2 of the 1998 World Series. With 2 outs Trent Grisham then singles home Moreland to make it 6-5, another "second" in Padres postseason history. Their only other RBI base hit when down to the team's final strike came from Jim Leyritz, whose home run off Houston's Billy Wagner tied Game 2 of their 1998 Division Series.

Bye, Kenley. As Friend Of Kernels Jayson Stark discovered, this was Jansen's 373rd career save opportunity. Not once had he gotten pulled with the Dodgers still ahead. Instead that save would go to Joe Kelly, and he didn't exactly make it easy either. Grisham's already on first. Kelly promptly walks two batters to load the bases with a 1-run lead. He then somehow gets Eric Hosmer to hit a grounder to short, "earning" a save despite facing three batters and walking two of them-- the first pitcher in postseason history to do that. Hosmer, meanwhile, had the first postseason at-bat in 11 years to end a game with the bases loaded and his team down 1; Nick Swisher forced a Game 6, so to speak, in the 2009 ALCS against the Angels.

Game 3 in this series was already forced just by the best-of-five format, but MLB's schedulers were not forced to have the Dodgers and Padres be the last game every night. We know they did that to get west-coast TV ratings, but remember those nine pitchers the Padres used in Game 1? How quaint. Facing elimination, San Diego broke their own record by running eleven pitchers out to the mound-- with only "starter" Adrian Morejon getting more than 3 outs-- and of course they still lost. (Which was probably good, because who's left to pitch Game 4?) They did keep this one marginally close at the beginning, with Jake Cronenworth the recipient of the first game-tying bases-loaded walk in Padres postseason history in the 2nd. The Dodgers then piled up 4 hits, 2 walks, a stolen base, and a wild pitch in the 3rd to pull away with a 5-run inning. They were also playing their own "opener" games, letting Dustin May go just 1 inning before pulling him. Only Josh Tudor (1988, blew out his elbow) and Bob Welch (1983, a combination of early walks and Tommy Lasorda) had been pulled from a Dodgers postseason start before allowing a hit. Julio Urias, meanwhile, played the role of "long reliever", going 5 innings and only allowing 1 hit himself. It had been 34 years since a Dodgers pitcher threw 5 innings in relief with 1 hit and 6 strikeouts; Balvino Galvez, who made just 10 MLB appearances, did it against the Giants on September 26, 1986. But because balks make everything funner, we must give Urias a shout-out for becoming the second pitcher in Dodgers postseason history to balk in a run. Elias Sosa did that in the opening game of the 1977 NLCS against the Phillies. And after Brusdar Graterol committed a non-scoring balk on Wednesday, the Dodgers became just the third team in postseason history to have one in back-to-back games (1975 Pirates, 1948 Indians).

The big offensive story of the night was Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who succeeded in raising his postseason batting average by 158 basis points. In his two years in the majors, Smith had been 1-for-24 (.042) entering Thursday's game, but sure, keep running different Padres pitchers out there, I'll hit all of them. Double off Morejon. RBI single off Tim Hill. Single off Matt Strahm. Single off Drew Pomeranz. And the icing on the cake, another double off Trevor Rosenthal in the 9th to score Dodgers runs number 9 and 10. It's not only the first 5-hit game in Dodgers postseason history, it's just the third time anyone's gotten hits off five different pitchers in a postseason game. Albert Pujols, who had the last 5-hit game overall in the 2011 World Series, did it; the first was Paul Blair of the Orioles in the 1969 ALCS. We also just listed you three of the four players ever to have 5 hits and 3+ RBI in a postseason game; the other is Hideki Matsui of the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. And only three other "Los Angeles" Dodgers have ever done 5-and-3 without a home run in the mix: James Loney (September 18, 2011), Ron Cey (July 3, 1977), and Willie Davis (August 24, 1971).

It's hard to know whether the Padres kept changing pitchers because Smith and the Dodgers kept getting hits, or vice versa, but regardless Los Angeles had just two innings in the 12-3 clincher where they did not have at least two baserunners. That means a lot of guys on second and third, commonly noted as "scoring position". In fact the Dodgers would finish the game 8-for-24 (twenty-four!) in those situations. That set a postseason record for the most at-bats by any one team with runners in scoring position; the previous mark had been held by the Blue Jays who went 10-for-23 in a wild 15-14 World Series game in Philadelphia in 1993.

24-Homer Magic In The Air

Speaking of 24, back at Dodger Stadium, any kind of water that did fall and run down the side of Chavez Ravine was sure to collect some baseballs along the way. Because plenty of them landed outside the stadium thanks to its two combatants, the Astros and Athletics. Exactly two dozen of them, in fact, easily the most ever at one stadium in a single postseason series. Where to begin.

Khris Davis will take care of beginning things for us, with a 2-run shot to open the scoring in Game 1. He would end up joining Brandon Moss (2014 Wild Card game) as the only A's designated hitters with 2 hits and 2 RBI in a postseason loss. Sean Murphy and Matt Olson followed him with dingers in the 3rd and 4th, just the second time in A's postseason history that they'd gone deep in three consecutive innings. The other was in the famous "earthquake game", 1989 WS 3 against Oakland, that had to be postponed for 10 days. That also made it just the second time the A's had hit 3 homers in a game at Dodger Stadium; the other was April 11, 2018, and Davis hit the first one in that batch as well.

However, much like the Home Run Derby that this series would become, the A's are now done homering and Astros, your turn to swing away. Don't mind if we do. Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa both launched homers in the 4th, the first Astros teammates to homer in the same inning at Dodger Stadium since That Game With All The Homers, aka 2017 World Series Game 2 when Houston and Los Angeles piled up six of them from the 9th inning on. Monday's starter Chris Bassitt joined Tim Hudson (2003 ALDS 1) as the only A's starters to give up 9+ hits including multiple homers in a postseason game.

And yet it wasn't a homer that ultimately gave the Astros their Game 1 win. That happened in the 6th when Marcus Semien's 2-out error opened the floodgates behind reliever J.B. Wendelken. George Springer doubled to get Houston back to 5-4, and then Jose Altuve's bases-loaded single was just the third lead-flipping hit in the 6th or later in Astros postseason history. Marwin Gonzalez had a double in the 2018 ALDS aganist Cleveland, while Lance Berkman's homer in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS put them one strike away from the pennant before Albert Pujols flipped it back. Wendelken would become the second pitcher in A's postseason history to give up 0 earned runs (because of the 2-out error) and take a loss, and the other happened before earned runs were officially counted in league stats. Eddie Plank did it in a 1-0 game in 1905. Carlos Correa would homer again on the way to a 10-5 win, becoming the first Astros batter with a multi-homer game at Dodger Stadium since Lance Berkman on May 27, 2001. And George Springer finished Monday with 4 hits, joining Terry Puhl (1980 NLCS 5) as the only Astros leadoff batters to do that in the postseason.

Springer only ended up with 2 hits in Tuesday's 5-2 Houston victory, but guess where both of them landed. (Hint: Not in the playing field.) First we should mention that Khris Davis opened the scoring yet again with a 2nd-inning homer, the fourth A's batter to homer in Games 1 and 2 of the same postseason series. The rest of that list is Jose Canseco (1988 ALCS), Mickey Cochrane (1930 WS), and Jimmie Foxx (1929 WS). But Springer's first homer flipped that lead right back in the top of the 3rd, something he also did in Game 4 of last year's ALCS against the Yankees. Only eight players have hit multiple lead-flipping homers in postseason history (any inning); the aforementioned Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols are two of them, along with Sandy Alomar, Johnny Damon, Greg Luzinski, Jim Thome, and Lou Gehrig. And remember that Carlos Correa went deep twice on Monday. The last time any team had a 2-homer player in back-to-back postseason games was in 2011 when Delmon Young and Miguel Cabrera did it in the ALCS. And only two other teams have had it happen in Games 1 and 2 of a series: the 2002 Angels (Troy Glaus & Tim Salmon) and 1995 Braves (Chipper Jones & Marquis Grissom, much more on them later).

On to Wednesday with the A's facing a "win or go home" situation, which they promptly turned into "win or go homer". Maybe "win and go homer". "Go homer and win"? Because they did both. Tommy La Stella in the 1st. Mark Canha in the 2nd. Matt Olson in the 4th. Marcus Semien in the 5th. Have we mentioned that all of these were off Astros starter Jose Urquidy, who would become the fifth pitcher in postseason history to surrender four taters without finishing the 5th inning. The last one to do it was Andy Pettitte in Game 3 of the 1998 ALCS, and he ended up losing. So did Cincinnati's Gene Thompson (1939) and Charlie Root of the Cubs (1932). The only one not to lose was Dick Hughes of the Cardinals who got bailed out in Game 6 of the 1967 World Series by Lou Brock homering to tie the game in the 7th.

Well, the only one before Urquidy. Because all four of those Oakland homers were also solo shots, and the Astros offense was kinda busy also. Jose Altuve matched La Stella's dinger in the bottom of the 1st, joining Alex Bregman (WS Game 2, last year) as the only Houstonians to hit a 1st-inning postseason homer with the team already trailing. Then they ran Jesús Luzardo out of the game in the 5th when Aledmys Diaz homered to tie the game. The problem for Oakland, at least on this afternoon, was that they ran in Yusmeiro Petit. Who faced five batters and went hit-by-pitch, single, single, double, walk. Only nine pitchers in postseason history have faced five hitters and allowed all of them to reach, the most recent being Arizona's Brad Ziegler (2011 NLDS 3), who was also the only one to go 6-for-6. Petit did record an out because Altuve tried to go first-to-third on one of those singles and failed. But suddenly the Astros lead 7-4 and Urquidy is off the hook. And Oakland's season is on it unless they can come back.

Spoiler alert: Yeah, they can. Allow Chad Pinder to take care of that with yet another homer, this time a 3-run jack in the 7th to tie the game up again. Jason Giambi hit the only other tying or go-ahead 3-run homer for the A's in the 7th or later at Dodger Stadium, on June 16, 2009, off Ramon Troncoso. The only 3- or 4-run homers they've hit at all in the 7th or later of a postseason game were by Mark Ellis (2002), Ray Fosse (1974), and Mule Haas (1929). Pinder also joined Milton Bradley (2006 ALCS 2) and Dave Henderson (1989 WS 3) as the only A's batters with 3 hits and 4 RBI in a postseason game.

Finally the A's end up winning this thing with not a multi-run homer, but the play we love to call "a multi-run homer that didn't make it". Yes, the good old sacrifice fly, as if anyone in 2020 is really intentionally giving themselves up by hitting a ball to the outfield. But okay. We'll let Sean Murphy hit the first go-ahead sac fly in A's postseason history in the 8th or later, making up for also becoming the first A's catcher ever to commit an interference violation in a postseason game. Later in the inning Chad Pinder cranked one also for the final margin of 9-7, Oakland's first time hitting two of them that late in a game since Josh Reddick and Nate Freiman on April 4, 2013.

This of course sets up Game 4 on Thursday, and why wouldn't there be more bizarre home-run-ness? Only one of the A's got in on the homer party this time, but wouldn't you know he did it twice. Ramon Laureano gave Oakland a 3-0 lead against Zack Greinke in the 2nd, and then had to get a run back with another homer in the 5th. The only other A's batter with a multi-homer game at Dodger Stadium was (yep, we've been waiting for one of these) in an Angels game. Jim Gentile did it on May 7, 1965, the Halos' final season borrowing Chavez Ravine before they got old enough to get their own place.

You might ask why Laureano's second homer qualified as "getting a run back". Well, that's because the Astros offense was busy with its own little parade of Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa. They both took Frankie Montas deep in the 4th, with Correa being the fourth Astros player to hit a 3- or 4-run homer to flip a postseason game (George Springer 2019, Lance Berkman 2005, Craig Biggio 2004). Montas was also the fourth A's pitcher to give up 5 runs in a potential elimination game, after Jon Lester (2014 WC), Gil Heredia (2000 ALDS), and Mike Moore (1992 ALCS). The A's were well on their way to said elimination when Brantley homered again in the 5th, this time off J.B. Wendelken. Brantley is the first Astros batter to homer in consecutive innings of a postseason game, and the second to pull off that feat at Dodger Stadium after Denny Walling on August 5, 1986.

Remember last week when Wil Myers and Fernando Tatis hit 2 homers in the same game, joining Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1932? Well, see also: Brantley and Laureano. Except they are on different teams. And that has only happened two other times in postseason history. Boston's Troy O'Leary and Cleveland's Jim Thome did it in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS, while Atlanta's Chipper Jones and then-Cub Eric Karros matched homers in Game 4 of their 2003 Division Series. When Jose Altuve added the Astros' final runs in the 7th, we had just the fourth postseason series in history to collect 24 homers, and the first of those four that didn't last seven games. We also had the first series ever where four different games featured both teams hitting multiple homers. Who knew that, all this time, the secret to having the AL West not play a bunch of 3-1 snoozefests was to have them play in Dodger Stadium.

Rays Of Light

We then head south to Petco Park where one of the teams knows a little something about rivers and water runoff and also baseballs. The Yankees' double-A affiliate in Trenton, N.J., plays its games on the shores of the Delaware River, just upstream from the "secret" spot where MLB gathers the special mud to rub up all the game balls. (And if you've ever been to a game in Trenton where the wind is blowing the wrong direction, you might think it's something other than mud. If you get our, heh, drift.)

Game 1 between the Yankees and Rays got a little muddy for their ace starters, Gerrit Cole and Blake Snell. Cole lasted 6 innings but gave up homers to Randy Arozarena and Ji-Man Choi; he got the win only because Snell gave up three homers, joining Jeremy Hellickson (2011 ALDS), Matt Garza (2008 WS), and Scott Kazmir (2008 ALCS) as the only Rays pitchers to do that in the postseason. That left the Yankees hanging onto a 4-3 lead going to the 9th, but if you've learned nothing about the Yankees in the past two months, you should know that the 7th inning is way too early to start writing notes about them.

John Curtiss is sent to the mound to try and keep the Rays within 1 run. He did that by having Kyle Higashioka single on the first pitch he threw, then issuing a 4-pitch walk to D.J. LeMahieu. Then a single to Aaron Hicks, another walk to load the bases, and here comes Giancarlo Stanton. Who hasn't met a game yet this month in which he hasn't homered. Cue the second 9th-inning grand slam in Yankees postseason history, after Ricky Ledee in the 1999 ALCS. Their last 9th-inning slam in any game outside of Yankee Stadium was by Bobby Abreu in Toronto on September 24, 2008. And combined with the one Gio Urshela hit in the Wild Card series, it's only the second time the Yankees have hit two in one postseason; Bill Skowron and Yogi Berra each hit one in the 1956 World Series.

Game 2 looked remarkably similar, with the teams trading 1-run leads early, thanks mostly to those lovable homers again. Stanton got his out of the way early, a solo shot to lead off the 2nd and make him the seventh player to homer in four straight games within the same postseason. Not surprisingly, all but one have come in the Wild Card Era: George Springer (2017), Daniel Murphy (2015), Evan Longoria (2008), Carlos Beltran (2004), Juan Gonzalez (1996), and Jeffrey Leonard (1987). Meanwhile, Stanton tied the game with that homer because Randy Arozarena had gone deep again, becoming the first Rays batter to hit one in Games 1 and 2 of the same postseason series.

Mike Zunino then gave the Rays the lead again with his own homer in the 2nd; when Zunino homered in the Wild Card round last week, he stole the alphabetical caboose from another Rays great, Ben Zobrist. It was also the first team any team had an A- player and a Z- player homer in the same postseason game. Bobby Bonilla and Todd Zeile had the previous maximum separation when they did it for the Orioles in the last game of the 1996 ALCS.

Stanton may have been born in November, but he seems to have been born for October, because guess who got the Yankees back within a run in the 4th. He has now become the fourth Yankees batter to hit 5 homers in one postseason, after Alex Rodriguez (2009), Bernie Williams (1996), and of course "Mr. October" himself, Reggie Jackson (1977). However, Stanton would end up as the third Yankees batter with 4 RBI in a postseason loss; Yogi Berra did that in the 1956 game where he hit the grand slam, and again in the final game of 1960 when Bill Mazeroski hit the walkoff for the Pirates.

That 7-5 loss is largely because, when Stanton wasn't hitting homers off Tyler Glasnow, the rest of the team was missing badly. Glasnow struck out 10, the first Rays pitcher ever to hit double digits in a postseason game. That leaves four franchises (COL, LAA, MIL, TOR) that have never had a pitcher do it. He also joined James Shields (May 2, 2012) and Wilson Alvarez (June 25, 1999) as the only pitchers in Rays history to give up 4 runs and 2 homers, but also strike out 10 and get a win. The Yankees fared no better against the Rays' bullpen, finishing the game with 18 K's. That was the most ever by the Yankees against the Rays, and the most by any team in any 9-inning postseason game. Masahiro Tanaka was sent out for Game 3, and he's usually good for at least 1 homer every game. This time it took until the 4th inning, but it was a 3-run job off the bat of Kevin Kiermaier, the second 3- or 4-run go-ahead dinger in Rays postseason history. The other one was by... Kevin Kiermaier, and a year earlier to the day, when he took Zack Greinke deep. Tanaka then gave us a bonus homer when Randy Arozarena knocked him out of the game to start the 5th. Evan Longoria and Carlos Peña are the only other Rays batters to homer in three straight postseason games, and they did it in the same three games (2008 ALCS 3-5).

Chad Green got out of the 5th, but like Tanaka he was sent back out to start another inning, and that ended with Michael Perez also hitting a 2-run homer. Combined with Kiermaier, it was the seventh time a team's starting #8 and #9 batters had homered in the same postseason game, but it was the first time ever that they'd each had at least 3 RBI. And Perez also kept up another fascinating streak by homering in the 6th. After Arozarena in the 5th and Kiermaier in the 4th. Going back to Game 2 it was Arozarena in the 1st, Zunino in the 2nd, and Manuel Margot in the 3rd. The Rays are the first team in postseason history to homer in three consecutive innings in back-to-back games, and the seventh to homer in innings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of an entire series. The 2011 Tigers were the previous team to pull that off.

So it's 8-2 and the Rays are well on their way to a 2-1 series lead, but there's some unfinished business. Stanton hasn't homered yet. Darned 9-inning games. Out of that list above, only Murphy and Beltran extended their single-postseason homer streak to 5 games, and it also marked the third time this season that a Yankees player had a 5-game streak. Luke Voit and Aaron Judge had two of the three such streaks in the majors in the regular season, and it matches the total number of Yankees who had 5-game homer streaks in the previous 50 seasons combined (A-Rod, Tino Martinez, Don Mattingly).

Some unexpected Yankee bats got into the homer fray in Game 4 when Luke Voit and Gleyber Torres both hit their first ones of the series. With both teams saving their aces for a potential Game 5, it was the Yankees bullpen who nailed down Tampa Bay for the final 5 innings and forced said winner-take-all matchup. Chad Green faced 6 batters and retired all of them. Zack Britton went 5 up, 5 down. The only other Yankees pitchers to do 4 or more in the same game were Green and Tommy Kahnle in last year's ALCS against Houston. For the Rays, employing their now-standard "opener" tactic meant Ryan Yarbrough threw 5 innings in "relief" by himself, breaking the 3⅓ that Dan Wheeler threw in an extra-inning game in the 2008 ALCS. Torres would end up with 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI (on the homer), and a stolen base, the second-youngest player in postseason history to do all of that in one game. The Rays can probably tell you who the other one is-- Evan Longoria in the 2008 Division Series against the White Sox.

So it's 5-1, the Rays have only 3 hits, and we've got some unfinished business. Stanton hasn't homered yet. Stop us if you've heard this one (see two paragraphs ago). And no, no he didn't. Aaron Hicks came up with the bases loaded in the 8th but flied out to end the inning and strand Stanton on deck. Giancarlo did, however, hit a double in the 7th that result in the end of Yarbrough's night. That's still an extra-base hit if not a homer. And the only other Yankees batter with an XBH in six straight postseason games is Paul O'Neill, who did it eight in a row over two years (1997-98).

Which brings us to the only one of our Division Serieses to actually go the full five games. Continuing that Giants "even year" theme from a decade ago, the last four times that only one (or zero) went the distance were 2014, 2016, 2018, and now 2020. And apparently someone forgot to tell the offenses that they needed to play Game 5. With Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow matching up, neither team got a hit until Aaron Judge led off the 4th with a home run. That made it the third winner-take-all game to go hitless through 3, after ALDS matchups in 2012 (Jason Hammel vs CC Sabathia) and 2013 (Justin Verlander vs Sonny Gray). Judge also hit a go-ahead homer in the 2018 Wild Card game, making him and Yogi Berra the only Yankees with two go-ahead dingers in "WTA" games.

Ah, but Tyler Glasnow wasn't around to see it. (He probably saw it, just not from the mound.) He got yanked in the 3rd inning after one time around the Yankees order (and 2 walks). Only one other pitcher in postseason history has gotten pulled from a winner-take-all start with a no-hitter still intact. That's a famous stunt by Senators manager Bucky Harris in 1924 to "start" right-hander Curly Ogden but switch him up for lefty George Mogridge after one batter (which actually became two). Cole, meanwhile, made it to the 6th inning, finishing with 9 strikeouts and just the 1 hit allowed. Except it's still tied, meaning he joined Homer Bailey (2012 NLDS 3) and Mike Mussina (1997 ALCS 6) as the only pitchers in postseason history to put up that line and not get a win out of it.

Finally in the 8th Mike Brosseau would decide he had enough ties. You know, for church, for a big meeting at work, for formal dinners. No more ties. After fouling off four 2-strike pitches from Aroldis Chapman, Brosseau hit the first-ever home run in Rays postseason history on the ninth pitch or later of an at-bat. He also hit just their second go-ahead homer in the 8th or later, joining Jose Lobaton's walkoff against Boston in the 2013 ALDS. Amazingly, Brosseau's pinch-hit single in the 6th was the only other Rays hit of the game; they became the third team in postseason history to have 3 hits, strike out 13 times, and win; the 2012 Giants (NLDS 3) and 1997 Indians (ALCS 6) were the others. Even more impressive, in the long and storied history of the Yankees franchise, Friday was the first time they had held their opponent to 3 hits, recorded 13+ strikeouts, and lost. Timing is everything.

Since we were busy no-hitting each other for the first half of the game, it turned out to be the first winner-take-all game in postseason history in which neither team had more than 3 hits. Almost like neither one of them wanted to leave San Diego. We know the feeling.

I Wanna See You Be Braves

But we still have one series we haven't gotten to yet. So we must hop the mountains again, back to the Atlantic Ocean watershed where yet another playoff team is hosting Division Series games that don't even involve them. Houston has some unfortunate experiences with excess water, one of them causing one of the most famous neutral-site games in MLB history, Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter against the Astros at Miller Park. The nearby indie team in Sugar Land also played a bunch of "home" games on the road a couple years ago, a predecessor to all those rescheduled "home team bats first" doubleheaders in 2020.

The Marlins played in a bunch of those doubleheaders in our shortened and oft-rearranged mini-season, but at least for three days they were closer to being Fish out of water. They started Tuesday on the wrong foot (fin? flipper?) when Ronald Acuña hit a home run on the second pitch of the series from Sandy Alcantara. It was the 13th homer to be hit by a team's first batter of a postseason series, and the fourth by the Braves to start any postseason game. Those others belong to Marcus Giles (2001 NLCS 2), Marquis Grissom (1995 NLDS 2), and Bill Bruton (1958 WS 2). Acuña's homer was also just the third leadoff dinger the Braves had hit at Minute Maid Park, and don't forget the Astros have still played there as an NL team for longer than as an AL team. Those other two leadoff homers were by Nate McLouth (September 10, 2009) and Josh Anderson (September 27, 2008).

For the Marlins faithful that was only a temporary setback when Miguel Rojas led off the 2nd with a homer of his own. And they built a 4-1 lead with 4 hits in the 3rd. But then, from the village of Arnaud in the south of France, comes Travis (sometimes there is actual research involved in these posts) to lead the Braves back to victory. His double in the 3rd got the Braves back within 1, and scroll forward to the 7th and the proverbial second-guessing of "did we leave Alcantara out there one inning too long?". He gave up two singles to start the frame, and then d'Arnaud unloads a 3-run homer off Yimi Garcia to put Atlanta in front for good. Chipper Jones (2001 NLDS 1) and Michael Tucker (1998 NLCS 5) had the only other 3- or 4-run, go-ahead homers in the 7th or later in Braves postseason history, and it would also make Alcantara the first Marlins pitcher not named Josh Beckett (who did it twice in 2003) to strike out 8 opponents in a postseason game and lose. When Dansby Swanson homered later in the same inning, Garcia got the dubious honor of being the first Marlins pitcher to give up 3+ runs, get 1 out, and blow a save in a postseason appearance. D'Arnaud would join Chipper Jones (1999 NLCS 5) and Otis Nixon (1993 NLCS 2) as the only Braves batters with 3 hits and 2 walks in the same postseason game.

If only the Marlins had known that Tuesday's 9-5 loss would be the high point. While it's true that they did only allow the Braves 2 runs in Wednesday's Game 2, their own offense ran into the phenom known as Ian Anderson, who proceeded to hold Miami to 3 hits while striking out 8. He also posted that line in Game 2 of the Wild Card series last week against Cincinnati, joining Tom Glavine as the only pitchers in Braves postseason history to do it twice and win both games. Also, as we've hinted before, you can't spell "Brian Anderson" (of the Marlins) without "Ian Anderson" (of the Braves), and when the former doubled off the latter in the 4th, we're pretty sure it's the first postseason hit in MLB history where one player's name is fully contained within the other. (We didn't feel like downloading all 27,000 of them to make sure, however, so don't make any life-altering decisions based on this.)

And one of Tuesday's irritants, Ronald Acuña, at least stayed silent on Wednesday by striking out four times. He's the first Braves leadoff batter ever to do that in a postseason game, and he would end up as the fifth leadoff batter in postseason history to have 0 hits and 4 strikeouts in a game his team won. The others there are Austin Meadows (Rays 2019), Austin Jackson (Tigers 2011), Alfonso Soriano (Yankees 2003), and Brady Anderson (Orioles 1997).

However, the Marlins still couldn't shake those other two big troublemakers from Tuesday, Travis d'Arnaud and Dansby Swanson. Both of them hit solo homers off Pablo Lopez, which wouldn't have been a huge problem in most games, but with Anderson dealing on the other side, those two homers comprised the entire 2-0 final score. The Nationals, in 2012, were the last team to hit two solo shots for their only runs in a postseason game and win; Jayson Werth's walkoff to force a Game 5 against St Louis was the second of the homers in that one. You might remember that d'Arnaud and Swanson also both homered in that big 7th inning on Tuesday; they join a list of six other Braves batters to homer in Games 1 and 2 of the same postseason series. The only other teammates to both do it were Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko in the 1997 NLCS; the rest of the roll is Javy Lopez (2002 NLDS), Eddie Perez (1999 NLCS), Marquis Grissom (1995 NLDS), and Hank Aaron (1969 NLCS).

Ah yes, Hank Aaron in that 1969 NLCS against the Mets. That was the first-ever National League Championship Series, and they were only best-of-five back then, so it's fun that the Braves got swept despite Aaron homering in every game. That kept coming up in our searches on Thursday because guess what d'Arnaud and Swanson did again. Nope. Good try though. This time Atlanta didn't homer at all on their way to washing the Marlins back out to sea, but d'Arnaud opened the scoring with a 2-run double in the 3rd, and then Swanson scampered his way to a triple in the 9th. So while they didn't homer, they did both have an extra-base hit in Games 1, 2, and 3 of the same series. Only other Braves batter to do that? Yep, Hank Aaron in 1969. And while Swanson's triple didn't score a run, he did drive in d'Arnaud with a sacrifice fly after that 3rd-inning double. That gave both players at least 1 RBI in Games 1, 2, and 3 as well? Yep, Aaron again, although a few other familiar names did this one in between-- all in Division Series play: Fred McGriff (1996), Javy Lopez (2002), Marcus Giles (2003), Andruw Jones (2005), and Chris Johnson (2013). Swanson's interesting combo of a triple and a sac fly in the same game was the first time any Braves batter had done that since... welp, Dansby Swanson on April 8, 2019, at Coors Field. The only other Braves hitters with two such games, regular or postseason, are Brian Jordan, Ron Gant, Eddie Mathews, Bill Bruton, and (guess who!) Hank Aaron again.

And while the Braves were busy collecting 7 runs without so much as a homer on Thursday, the Marlins were once again battling their pitching in the form of Kyle Wright, who almost matched Anderson's line with 0 runs, 3 hits, and 7 strikeouts (instead of 8). This week's clincher by Wright, plus last week's clincher by Anderson against the Reds, are two of the three games in Braves postseason history where a pitcher has done that 0-3-7 combo line in a game that won a series. The other was Tom Glavine in 1995 to enable one of Skip Caray's great calls, "The Atlanta Braves have given you a championship!"

We don't know if the Braves will give you, the humble viewer of WTBS-17 in Atlanta, another championship this year. (We're pretty sure Skip Caray won't be calling it if they do, but hey, 2020.) But we know there's only four teams left for two pennants and 30 little golden flags. On to the next round.