The All-Judicial Team

Greetings #Kernels fans. Baseball is upon us again, and tomorrow happens to be the one-year anniversary of our "independence", let's call it, from ESPN, so maybe this will become an annual tradition.

Anyway, you may know that the Yankees acquired Brandon Drury last week, leading to all kinds of "Judge and Drury" (as in "jury") quips. We've also had occasion to watch Red Sox minor-leaguer Ryan Court (see final entry) in Pawtucket for the past couple years and always wanted to see a trade put him and Aaron Judge together. When Friend of Kernels @ZackRaab asked if there had ever been a player named Verdict, the inspiration was born for one of our famous "all-subject teams".

There have been four or five of these over the years, such as the All-Weather Team ("Flash" Gordon, Tim Raines, J.T. Snow), the All-Food Team (Chili Davis, Mark Hamburger, Felix Pie), and even an All-Double-Name Team (Wes Westrum, Jose Jose (who really exists), Dave Davidson). If we can dig any of them up, we'll post them for old time's sake. Or as an annual anniversary gift at the end of February.

The idea/format is to create a complete 25-man roster with the standard eight defensive positions, a DH, a five-pitcher starting rotation, and then as many bench and bullpen guys as needed who also fit the theme. Usually we end up with a closer and a couple managers/coaches as well. Each player (except for the 26th man who gets called up for doubleheaders) must have appeared in the majors at some point, even if just for one game, and played a decent amount of time at the position we slot him for (not necessarily "primary position", just enough that we'd feel comfortable putting him there for any one particular game). We don't make a lineup (that's the manager's job, duh), just present them all in order with a brief career description and some fun "whatever happened to" tidbits. And we try, whenever possible, to avoid using the same name more than twice.

So with the background out of the way, we present the Kernels "All-Judicial Team", with the relevant topic about trials and procedure underlined in the name. Consider yourself (Scott) Service-d and we'll see you in (Ryan) Court.



Starters

C Johnny (Approach the) Bench 1967-83
ROY 1968, MVP 1970 and 1972, HOF 1989. Seventeen years with Reds, led majors in home runs twice and RBIs three times. Remains only player in Reds history with 2,000+ hits and 300+ homers. Hosted "The Baseball Bunch" which some of us remember watching every week in the early '80s. Also committed no runs, no drips, and no errors.

1B David Justice 1989-2002
Three-time All-Star, one of 137 players with 300 career HR & 1000 career RBI. Hit solo homer which stood up for 1-0 victory in Game 6 of 1995 WS (Atlanta's only title); also won WS with Indians in '97. Yes, we know he was an outfielder for most of his career, but he won 1990 ROY as a first baseman, and we need one, so we're trotting him back out there. As of 2015, lived in San Diego, coaches a bunch of his kids' teams, and "has a taxi service" shuttling them all around.

2B Jurickson Profar 2012-
Current utility infielder for Rangers. Upon his callup, was the first player born in 1993 to make the majors. Hit home run in first at-bat. Played for Dutch teams in both Little League World Series and World Baseball Classic.

SS Craig Counsell 1995-2011
1624 games over 16 seasons, mostly with Arizona and Milwaukee. Won WS with Marlins in '97 and D'backs in 2001; scored winning run in the former on Edgar Renteria's walkoff single. Current Brewers manager.

3B Vance Law 1980-91
Eleven seasons, mostly with White Sox and Expos. All-Star with Cubs in 1988 when he had career-highs of .293 and 78 RBI. Coached BYU baseball from 2000 to 2012, now a development coach for the Sox. Also pitched in 7 games because Expos.

LF Barry (Bail) Bonds 1986-2007
You might have heard of him.

CF George Case 1937-47
Four-time All-Star in 10 seasons with Senators. Only player to led the majors in stolen bases five seasons in a row (1939-43). Lost a 100-yard dash to Jesse Owens in one of Bill Veeck's famous promos. New Jersey native; coached Rutgers to its only College World Series appearance (1950) and then coached for several major-league teams in the '60s. Died in 1989.

RF Aaron Judge 2016-
2017 ROY with Yankees. Led American League in all three true outcomes (52 HR, 127 BB, 208 K). Set major-league record for strikeouts in a season if you include the playoffs.

DH Al Chambers 1983-85
Aaron Judge has his chambers and so do we. Number-one draft pick in 1979 but appeared in only 57 games with Mariners over three seasons, hitting .208. Returned to his home area of south central Pennsylvania and (as of 2004) worked for Hershey Foods mixing chocolate syrup.



Bench

LF/3B Bobby Scales (of Justice) 2009-10
14th-round pick of the Padres in 1999, floundered in minors for 11 years before finally getting an injury callup with the Cubs. Stayed for about a year and a half before doing two stints in Japan. Hit .248 with 3 homers. Became director of player development for the Angels and is now a "special assistant".

C Jimmy Peoples (Exhibit 1) 1884-89
Six-year veteran of the old American Association, mostly with the Brooklyn Grays. Hit .211 with an OPS of .532. Committed 168 passed balls (still good for 58th all-time) but never led the league. Umpired for a few years before returning to Detroit and going into real estate.

IF Jeff Cross (Examination) 1942-48
Had an RBI single in his only game with the Cardinals in 1942 before joining the Navy. Returned in '46 and played 50 games a season until the Cubs purchased him in '48 and sent him to the minors, after which he moved to Houston and became an insurance agent.

OF Choo Freeman 2004-06
Real name Raphael. Hit .225 in parts of three seasons with Rockies. Got nickname because his grandmother's house backed to some train tracks and he would always ask when the choo-choo was coming. Had a hip replacement in 2007 and had to retire. Now runs a youth baseball academy in Dallas.



Rotation

SP Vern Law 1950-67
Father of our 3B Vance Law. 364 starts over 16 seasons, all with Pirates (interrupted by two years in Korean War). All-Star, Cy Young, and World Series winner in 1960. Hurt his ankle while celebrating the pennant win that year, then tore a shoulder muscle as a result of having to change his mechanics, and struggled for several seasons thereafter. 119 career complete games and 2672 innings. Also hit .216 with 11 career homers. Is an ordained Mormon priest.

SP Jim (Side) Barr 1971-83
Pitched 12 seasons for Giants and Angels, hit 230 IP five years in a row. Held record for consecutive batters retired (41) for about 35 years. In final season, was fined for flipping the ball at manager Frank Robinson upon being removed. Later spent 16 years as pitching coach at Sacramento State.

SP Mike Witt(ness) 1981-93
Two-time All-Star with Angels, is in their HOF largely thanks to the 11th perfect game in MLB history (1984). Third in Cy Young voting in 1986 but had an ERA over 4 every year after that. Led majors in earned runs allowed in 1989. Traded to Yankees in 1990 for Dave Winfield. Took up high school coaching to watch his kids grow up and still does it in Orange County.

SP Vern Ruhle 1974-86
Over 1400 innings in 13 years, mostly with Tigers and Astros. Went 12-4 with a 2.37 in guiding Houston to playoffs in 1980. Gave up Hank Aaron's 2,210th career RBI to break Babe Ruth's then-record. Coached for several other teams, including Astros and most recently Reds, until his death in 2007.

SP Tommy Fine 1947-50
Started on wrong foot with Red Sox by bringing his wife to spring training. Minor-league career then interrupted by a burst appendix and World War II and didn't make majors until age 32. Only pitched 36 innings in 1947 despite starting seven times. Unremarkable stint with Browns in 1950, then hung around minors for six more years. Was called to play winter ball in Cuba as a late replacement for Hoyt Wilhelm, and ended up throwing only no-hitter in Caribbean Series history (and came three outs from consecutive ones).



Bullpen

RP Ryan Sherriff 2017-
2010 pick of Nationals out of high school but didn't sign and played one year at Glendale Community College before the Cardinals drafted him in 2011. Got major-league callup last August to replace Trevor Rosenthal. Pitched 14⅓ innings over 13 games. Also pitched for
Israel in WBC qualifiers last year (his grandparents were Holocaust survivors).

RP Hung* (Jury) Chih Kuo 2005-11
212 relief appearances in seven years with Dodgers, starter for parts of 2006 and 2007 after triple-A tried to convert him. Became first Taiwanese player to homer in the majors (June 12, 2007) and celebrated accordingly. Also first Taiwanese All-Star (2010) as injury replacement for Jason Heyward. Granted free agency after his fifth elbow surgery and is now playing back in Taiwan.
* His name is alternately listed with either an O or a U, but Baseball Reference uses the U, and dammit, we needed the bat flip in there.

RP Jailen Peguero 2007-08
25 appearances with Diamondbacks. WHIP of almost 1.8. Hung around on a couple minor-league contracts, then played in Mexico until 2014 and two years in indie-ball. Got only major-league win when Jeff Salazar hit a walkoff homer against the Giants.

RP Jim Constable 1956-63
56 games over parts of five seasons including the Giants' last in New York and first in San Francisco. Nicknamed "Sheriff" in his playing days. (He and Ryan have an ongoing feud over this in our clubhouse.) Career ERA 4.87, hit .235 but never scored a run nor drove one in. Was waived twice during the 1958 season, then had a mental breakdown while playing winter ball in Cuba (also, Castro took over) and took three years off. Returned to finish his career with Giants, then eventually became a teacher.

RP Gus (Pro) Bono
Real name Adlai. Four games for Senators at end of 1920 season. Lost two of them. Threw a no-hitter for the "Shreveport Gassers" (really) in 1919 and later led them to that year's Texas League title. Moved to Detroit and became a millwright at a steel company until his death in 1948.

RP Jason (Witness) Standridge 2001-07
127 innings over 80 games, mostly with Rays. Made seven starts in 2003 and lost five of them. In only career plate appearance, drew a walk and was then caught stealing. Had a couple of spring-training invites but has otherwise been playing in Japan since 2007.

CL Mike Marshall 1967-81
Screwballer who won NL Cy Young in 1974 while setting a major-league record for appearances with 106. Two-time All-Star and three-time Reliever Of The Year. Holds a doctorate from Michigan State in kinesology-- an interest he developed after being injured in a car accident at age 11-- and was the one to suggest that Tommy John have Tommy John Surgery. Arrested for disorderly conduct in 1982 after throwing a baseball at the truck of a local dogcatcher. Still does pitching consults.



Staff

Manager: Scott Servais (of a summons)
Catcher for 11 seasons, mostly with Astros and Cubs. Hit .245, made one postseason appearance (1998 Cubs). Led majors in errors by a catcher in 1995. Served as assistant GM of the Angels alongside Bobby Scales. Current manager of Seattle Mariners.

Bench Coach: Tom Lawless
Quintessential "fifth infielder" 1982-90, mostly with Cardinals. Max playing time was 59 games with Jays in 1989. Hit .207 with three career homers, but one of those was a go-ahead shot in Game 4 of the 1987 World Series. Interim manager for Astros in 2014 when Bo Porter got fired. Also famous as the only player ever traded for Pete Rose (from Expos, August 1984).



26th man for DH

IF Ryan Court 2011-
23rd-round pick of Diamondbacks in 2011, but never got above double-A. Spent 2015 in indie-ball and got noticed by Red Sox, spent last two years in Pawtucket but has still never made majors. Currently in Cubs camp as a non-roster invitee.

Whirled Series

Because this one just had all kinds of stuff mixed together. Also, if we spell it this way we aren't mandated to say "presented by YouTube TV".


Gone In 148 Minutes

As soon as Former New Britain Rock Cat Brian Dozier hit the fifth pitch of the postseason for a leadoff home run, we made it a habit to have the "leadoff homer" notes ready before each game. After all, that's one of the few things you can predict-- there's always potential for a leadoff homer. Turns out we didn't need any of them for three whole weeks. But when we did, it was in the perfect spot.

It had been 10,596 days since a Dodgers hitter last saw a pitch in the World Series (trivia time: who?), and Chris Taylor decided time was a-wasting, cranking that first pitch over the fence for the Dodgers' second leadoff homer ever in a World Series. Davey Lopes took Catfish Hunter deep to open Game 6 of the 1978 classic, though the Yankees scored four unanswered runs late to clinch the championship. Taylor also became just the fourth batter ever to hit a leadoff homer in Game 1 of a World Series; the previous one had been two years ago by Alcides Escobar, reigniting debate over whether that play should really be scored an inside-the-parker. The others to do it were Dustin Pedroia in 2007 and the Orioles' Don Buford in 1969.

In a scene strangely reminiscent of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium, the Astros' bats refused to get going on the road, and Clayton Kershaw finally quieted the tired "October" narrative. Kershaw fanned 11 Houstonians and allowed just three hits, although one of those happened to be an Alex Bregman homer for the Astros' only scoring. Kershaw, of course, padded his lead in the "homer" department by giving up four of them in the Division Series in Arizona; he is the sixth pitcher to allow seven longballs in one postseason, although obviously there are more rounds now. The last to do it was Cole Hamels in 2009.

The double-digit strikeout count was the fifth of Kershaw's postseason career, and he's done it once each year as the Dodgers have made the playoffs each season since 2013. Not only is it the first such five-season streak in postseason history, Kershaw is the first pitcher to have a 10-K game in any five postseasons, consecutive or not. Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, and (including this year) Justin Verlander have all done it four times.

Oh, and did we mention not walking anyone either? That put Kershaw in elite company, and "Sterling Hitchcock" isn't usually the first name you think of when someone says "elite". But he's the only other pitcher in postseason history (not just WS) to have a game with 11 strikeouts, no walks, and a max of 3 hits allowed. That was also against the Astros, in the fourth and final game of the 1998 Division Series against the Padres.

And for once in this season of #bullpenning and pitching changes every two batters and hitters taking seven pitches before even thinking about swinging, we got a game where all the stars aligned. Four runs, two walks, nine hits, four runners stranded (combined), the home team won (so no B9), only three at-bats longer than six pitches, and only one mid-inning pitching change. That adds up to an incredibly tidy 2 hours 28 minutes, the shortest World Series game since the Braves' Tom Glavine and the Jays' Jimmy Key both pitched into the 8th in Game 4 of the 1992 showdown. It was the shortest game of this postseason by a full 32 minutes.

And if you've ever balanced a boxscore, you know that 51 outs (since Dodgers did not need B9) plus 4 runs plus 4 LOB equals just 59 total plate appearances, tying for the third-fewest in World Series history. The last 59 was Game 2 in 2001, when Randy Johnson complete-game-shutout-ed the Yankees; the only games with fewer were Larsen's perfecto (56 PA), and a 1-0 clincher by Baltimore's Dave McNally in 1966 (57 PA). Apparently (they didn't admit this, but it feels reasonable) 2:28 was so short that MLB was even forced to move the remaining games of the series back 11 minutes to make up for lost advertising time.

Trivia answer: Alfredo Griffin. He grounded out to end the top of the 9th in Game 5 of the 1988 Series; Orel Hershiser then finished off a complete game in B9 as the Dodgers won the title in Oakland.


That. Really. Happened.

For a while it looked like Vin Scully's epic first-pitch ceremony might be the most memorable thing about Game 2. Dave Roberts started #bullpenning in the 5th inning again; Justin Verlander only gave up two hits, but both were home runs; and once again we sat on a 3-1 score through seven innings before Alex Bregman doubled to lead off the 8th and eventually scored to make our situation a bit more tenuous. The Dodgers finished the 8th still with only those two hits, resulting in a lot of searches for wins with two hits, wins with three hits (just in case they get a cheap one), team's only hits being home runs, and so forth.

Flush.

In what can only be described as one of the biggest home runs in Astros history (mainly because their radio broadcast kept describing it as such), Marwin Gonzalez deposited a ball just over the center-field wall to lead off the 9th and tie the game. It was the first game-tying homer in a World Series road game since Dwight Evans gave the Red Sox new life in Game 3 in Cincinnati in 1975 (they still lost), and the first by any Astro at Dodger Stadium since Lance Berkman hit one on May 27, 2001.

A George Springer two-out double went for naught, and so there's still a chance the Dodgers win via walkoff. Cue furious search for World Series walkoff notes, again with only two or three or four hits, last walkoff via whatever is about to happen (homer, sac fly, hit-by-pitch), and even though the Dodgers went 1-2-3 in the 9th to send us off to extras, those notes will still be good if the Astros don't score in the 10th.

Flush.

Before we could finish typing anything about the first one, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa went back-to-back in the span of three pitches, the first pair of B2B homers in extra innings in World Series history. The only other pair in any postseason game was by the Mariners' Edgar Martinez and John Olerud in their 2000 Division Series with the White Sox. The Astros had only hit three other sets of back-to-back homers in extra innings in team history, and bizarrely, all of those had come against the Mets (most recently May 2, 2001).

So of course Yasiel Puig starts the bottom of the 10th with yet another homer, making this the first-ever World Series game with three extra-inning homers. The only one with two was in 2011 and is commonly known as The David Freese Game, where he hit the walkoff in the 11th after the teams traded runs in the 10th. Logan Forsythe drew a two-out walk, but the Dodgers still only have three hits and they're all homers. As long as Enrique Hernandez makes the last out and ends the game, a few of our notes are still good.

Flush.

And not even a walkoff homer, a seeing-eye single to score Forsythe from second, tie the game again, earn Ken Giles another demerit (it's technically not a blown save because he entered in the 9th when it was tied, but it sure felt like one), and send us off to the 11th. That David Freese game in 2011, and Game 3 of the 1914 classic, are the only other World Series games where teams traded runs in an extra inning to force another extra inning.

At least we didn't have to wait long. After a leadoff single by Cameron Maybin, George Springer promptly hit a two-run blast, the first time in Astros history (regular or postseason) that they'd gone deep three times in extra innings in one game. In the entire 2017 regular season, the Astros only hit two extra-inning homers, and the Dodgers only gave up one. You might remember that one, too; it was Josh Harrison's walkoff to spoil Rich Hill's no-hitter. And when Charlie Culberson hit yet another solo shot in the bottom of the 11th to make the final score 7-6, it made World Series Game 2 the first contest ever-- in over 210,000 major-league games-- to have five extra-inning home runs. There have been 10 games with four, and oddly, one of those was earlier this year.

Lost in the end of the game was the fact that Justin Verlander got into the 5th before Joc Pederson homered, marking the eighth time this year an Astros pitcher had a no-hitter through four innings. Seven of those got broken in the 5th; Lance McCullers made it into the 7th on June 8 at Kansas City. And by giving up only the two homers, Verlander became the first starter in World Series history to give up multiple hits in a game with all of them being home runs. (Remember this part.)


Yu Rang?

Once again, just like the ALCS, the Astros' bats really woke up again once they got back to the friendly, indoor, not-100-degree confines of Minute Maid Park. Or maybe that had something to do with Yu Darvish's ineffective slider (which may, in turn, have had something to do with the baseballs?). After working around a leadoff double in the 1st, Darvish surrendered a controversial homer to Yuli Gurriel (the homer wasn't controversial, the rest was) followed by four more hits and a sacrifice fly to give Houston a 4-0 lead and basically the win. Darvish got yanked after just five outs, the first start of his major-league career where he had failed to finish the 3rd inning (to say nothing of the 2nd). However, he's in pretty good company (as is anyone who starts a World Series game); the other Dodgers to allow four earned runs in under two innings in the Series are Don Newcombe (1956), Karl Spooner (1955), and Carl Erskine (1953). Gurriel had a triple and double in the clinching Division Series game against the Red Sox, and thus joined Chris Burke (2005) as the only Astros to hit for a postseason cycle.

McCann would tack on two more hits in addition to his RBI single in that 2nd inning, becoming the first number-9 hitter to have a three-hit game in the World Series since Jose Vizcaino did it for the Yankees in the 2000 opener. And only one other catcher had done it, that being the Phillies' Bob Boone in 1980 against the Royals.

After the Dodgers clawed back to 5-3 in the 6th, Lance McCullers was lifted in favor of Brad Peacock, who "mustered" (get it?) the strength to finish the game while allowing only a 7th-inning walk to Andre Ethier. He is just the third pitcher ever to throw 3⅔ innings or more of hitless relief in a World Series game, and because we're down the path of bird references, the others were both Cardinals. Ron Taylor did it against the Yankees in 1964, as did Ted Wilks in 1944 in the all-St Louis series. Only two Astros had recorded 11 outs, no hits, four strikeouts, and gotten a save in the regular season, and one of those was in the team's first year before saves were even official. That belonged to Don McMahon (against the Cardinals again) on August 28, 1962; the one that's officially on the books is by Charlie Kerfield against the Padres on August 9, 1986. Combined with McCullers' relief appearance in ALCS 7, the Astros are the first team to record a pair of more-than-3-inning saves in the same postseason.


Knock On Wood

As we have discussed, no-hitters annoy us because everyone freaks out about them and it's hard to write about something that didn't happen. At least in the playoffs there's only one game going on at a time, so there aren't 14 others being ignored. And we've been watching the same eight teams all month, so much like those leadoff homers from Game 1, we aren't looking up the same notes over and over again.

That said, Alex Wood, like Yu Darvish before him, put his name next to some Dodger legends, albeit for a much different reason. After two walks, one retired on a double play, Wood became the 10th pitcher in Dodgers history to take a no-hitter through four innings. Three outs later he became the first of those to take one through five.

And speaking of nothing happening, after Chris Taylor's leadoff single (he joins Davey Lopes, Maury Wills, Jim Gilliam, and Billy Cox as Dodgers with two leadoff hits in a Series), Charlie Morton rattled off 15 straight outs of his own, meaning we reached the end of the 5th inning with only that hit on the bored, er, board. Only three World Series games have ever finished the 5th with one combined hit; you can probably guess that one was Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956, while the other was a cross-Chicago affair between Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown and Nick Altrock in 1906.

Finally with two outs in the 6th George Springer got hold of one to break up the no-hitter and the shutout and actually knock Wood (heh) out of the game despite allowing just the one hit. Wood thereby broke Sandy Koufax's record for the longest World Series no-hit bid in Dodger history; Koufax held the Yankees at bay for 4⅔ in the opener of the 1963 Series, a game in which he set the WS strikeout record with 15. (Breaking the record of Carl Erskine from 10 years earlier, in yet another of those 10 Dodger no-hit bids to get through four innings.)

Springer, for his part, became the first player ever to break up a World Series no-hit bid with a home run in the 6th inning or later. Wood was the 19th (not counting Larsen) to have one broken up after 5+, but the previous latest homer had been by Roger Maris in 1962 Game 6; he opened the scoring (and the hitting) against the Giants' Billy Pierce with two outs in the 5th.

And remember that Verlander factoid from Game 2 about giving up two hits and having both of them be homers? By getting pulled immediately, Wood managed to post the same line of "every hit was a homer". It just happened twice in four days after being done by only two other starters in the previous 112 World Series combined. "El Duque" Orlando Hernandez (1999 Game 1) and another Dodger, Johnny Podres (1953 Game 5), each had the "1 hit, 1 home run" line in their games.

Game 4, however, would ultimately be won on Cody Bellinger's RBI double in the top of the 9th, coming yet again off Ken Giles. Bellinger became the youngest player with a go-ahead RBI in the 9th inning of a World Series game since Edgar Renteria's walkoff single gave the Marlins the 1997 title. And when Bellinger and Justin Turner came around to score insurance runs, Giles became the first pitcher to enter a tie game in the 9th and give up three runs without recording an out. Which is why he likely won't be entering any more.

And again, just while we're getting our one-hitter notes ready (including a link to this classic Skip Caray call of the last World Series one-hitter), Alex Bregman pummels a two-out homer to make the final score 6-2 instead of 6-1. He did not, however, destroy the fact that the Astros are the first team in World Series history to have a game where every hit was a dinger. It was the fourth such game in Houston's team annals, and by virtue of Bregman batting second, the Astros also became the first team in (at least) the live-ball era to get a home run from their leadoff hitter, a home run from their number-2 hitter, and no other hits in the game. (Though honorable mention to the Yankees of July 3, 1975, who had leadoff man Bobby Bonds crank two homers and no one else get a hit.)


Harkening back to that last section title, here's a little disco break since you probably know what's coming next. Intermission!



Hold My Beer

Apparently Game 5 heard us whining about how nothing happened in Game 4.

Chris Taylor once again led off with a single, joining Jim Gilliam (1953) as the only Dodgers with three leadoff hits in one World Series. But even after that led to three 1st-inning runs, we were nowhere near done.

Dallas Keuchel got the hook in the 4th inning after allowing another run, his first start of 4+ runs in under 4 innings start since September 6, 2013, at Oakland. That hook, of course, comes a lot earlier in a World Series game, and when Yuli Gurriel hit a tying three-run homer in the bottom of the 4th, Keuchel was literally off the hook. He joins Peter Munro (2004 NLCS) as the only Astros starters to give up four runs in under four innings and not get charged with the loss.

Gurriel's homer was immediately followed by Cody Bellinger hitting another three-run homer in T5 to put the Dodgers back in front 7-4. Only twice before in World Series history had one team hit a three- or four-run homer and had it answered by a similar homer in the next half-inning. Frank Robinson and Hector Lopez traded hits in 1961 Game 5, and Duke Snider answered Yogi Berra's shot in Game 2 of the 1956 Series. Gurriel's homer was also the eighth allowed by Clayton Kershaw in this postseason, setting a new major-league "record", although there are obviously more rounds now.

After Kershaw walked two Astros in the bottom of the 5th, it was his turn to hit the showers, with Kenta Maeda summoned yet again as the first "reliever" out of Dave Roberts' bullpen. Jose Altuve promptly met him with yet another three-run homer, tying the game at 7-7 and making it simultaneously the first World Series game to have three 3-run homers, and the fourth where both teams scored seven runs in the first five innings. The last of those was the Angels' 11-10 victory over San Francisco in Game 2 of the 2002 Series.

Bellinger would triple in another run to make it 8-7 in the top of the 7th; he is the youngest player ever to record a homer and a triple in a World Series game (Bryce Harper in 2012 was the only one younger in any postseason game). But you didn't think that would last, did you?

Brandon Morrow took the ball for the bottom of the 7th and, having pitched in all five games of the series so far, promptly gave up four hits and four runs on only six pitches. When Carlos Correa finally knocked him out with a home run, it was 11-8 Astros and we were working on the highest-scoring World Series games of all time. Altuve, Gurriel, and Correa became the first three teammates in World Series history with a homer and 3 RBI in the same game, and when you add Bellinger's shot for the Dodgers, it was the first time four players had done it for both teams combined. Morrow was only the second pitcher in World Series history to face four batters and give up a hit and a run to all of them-- and the other was a starter. Charlie Root of the Cubs opened Game 2 of the 1935 classic by allowing single-double-single-homer before being replaced; the Tigers won that game 8-3.

Brian McCann made it 12-9 in the 8th and made the Astros the first team in World Series history to have five different players homer in the same game. (Only two teams, the 1989 Athletcs and 1928 Yankees, had hit five in a game, but with multiples by one player.)

Yasiel Puig added a seventh home run in the 9th to make it 12-11 and come one shy of the World Series record for homers-- set on Wednesday in Game 2! The 22nd homer of the series topped the record of the Angels and Giants in 2002, with potentially two more games to go. That, of course, is assuming Chris Devenski can get one. more. strike. Sigh.

Chris Taylor roped a single up the middle to score Austin Barnes and really make this game 12-12. When Josh Reddick flied out to end B9, we had the first contest in over five years that went to extras with both teams having already scored 12 runs; the Angels pulled out a 10-inning win (14-13) over the Red Sox on August 23, 2012. The Astros had never been involved in such a game, while the Dodgers last did it on May 19, 1990, in losing a 15-12 affair to the Phillies.

At least, with the way these teams were scoring, you figured it wouldn't be long. And with two outs in the 10th, Alex Bregman came through again with a walkoff single to score Derek Fisher from second. Fisher got the claim of being the first pinch runner in 22 years to score a walkoff run in a World Series game; Alvaro Espinosa, running for Carlos Baerga, did so for the Indians in 1995 Game 3. In the Dodgers' 216-game postseason history, they'd never scored in double digits and lost; and their last time scoring a dozen and losing was to the Rangers on September 2, 1997 (that was the Dodgers' first-ever interleague game in Texas; Sunday will be their last until late August).

As reported many other places, the 13-12 final tied for the second-highest-scoring game in World Series history, but thanks to our exciting score matrix, it pulled off one other feat. It was the first and only 13-12 score in the majors this season, and that was the one we had needed for almost two months now. Except for ties, 2017 featured every possible score starting with 13 or lower (so, 1-0 to 13-12), which has only happened five times in major-league history. The other seasons were 2007, 1998, 1996, and (!) 1884.

It's not easy being all green. It's only happened five times ever,
and we're pretty sure Excel wasn't around in 1884.

One-To-Three

Which adds up to six, and Game 6 back at Dodger Stadium sure looked a whole lot like Game 1 at Dodger Stadium (aside from the 36-degree temperature difference). The Astros got their only run on a solo homer, this time from George Springer in the top of the 3rd. It was Springer's third go-ahead homer in the World Series, something only four other players have accomplished: Curtis Granderson in 2015, Gene Tenace in 1972, Lou Gehrig (1928), and Babe Ruth (1926). Springer's other homer of the Series was a tying shot as part of Brandon Morrow's meltdown in Game 5; he and Gehrig are the only ones to have go-ahead or tying homers in three straight World Series games.

The Astros loaded the bases in the 5th, and had two more runners in the 6th, but failed to score either time. That swung some momentum to the Dodgers, who took the lead with a single, hit-by-pitch, double, and sac fly in the bottom half. Joc Pederson would later crank his third home run of the series for an insurance tally, joining Davey Lopes, Reggie Smith, and Duke Snider as Dodgers with three homers in the same World Series.

The Astros' failure to rally left Justin Verlander on the hook for the loss; only two other pitchers have struck out nine and walked zero in a World Series game and failed to get the win. They were Curt Schilling, who got a no-decision in the final game of 2001 when the Yankees tied it but Luis Gonzalez walked off; and Don Newcombe, who lost the first-ever 1-0 walkoff in World Series history on Tommy Henrich's home run in the 1949 opener.

And if that 3-1 thing looks familiar, yes, it's the same score as Game 1 (and actually Game 2 after 7 innings before all hell broke loose). It was the first repeated score in the last five World Series; the Giants had a pair of 2-0 wins over Detroit in 2012, but the last four Series all had a different score in each game. However, in 2012, one of those 2-0 wins came at AT&T Park and the other came at Comerica. Amazingly, the last time a World Series had the same final score twice in the same venue was way back in 1985. The Royals bookended the eastern part of the "I-70 Series" at Busch Stadium with identical 6-1 wins over the Cardinals in Games 3 and 5.


Lucky Sevens

As fans, we're really the lucky ones who got to see this series get all the way to a deciding game, the 2,468th one played in the major-league season. That's one shy of 2013's record; that season had a Game 163 between the Rays and Rangers for an AL Wild Card spot.

Once again George Springer opened things with a leadoff double, the first player ever to hit one in a winner-take-all road game. Bernie Carbo (1975 Red Sox) and Hank Bauer (1957 Yankees) both hit them at home, and both their teams lost. And while he did not record his sixth straight game with an RBI, Alex Bregman promptly "drove him in" with a grounder to first that Cody Bellinger airmailed. Dodgers leadoff man Chris Taylor answered Springer with his own double, only the second time in World Series history that both teams had recorded one in the same game. Kiko Garcia of the Orioles and Omar Moreno of the Pirates traded those hits in Game 3 of the 1979 Series. Lance McCullers plunked Justin Turner and Yasiel Puig to load the bases but escaped without allowing a run, setting up still more Springer heroics.

Brian McCann walked to lead off the 2nd, later scoring on a McCullers groundout. That made McCullers the first pitcher with an RBI in a winner-take-all game since Jesse Orosco for the Mets in 1986. No American League hurler had ever had one, and the last by a starter was when Bob Gibson homered for the Cardinals in the 1967 finale against the Red Sox. But Springer promptly put the game out of reach with a two-run homer, his fifth of the series and fourth straight game with a longball. Springer became the first player ever to homer in four straight World Series games in one season. The only players to do it at all did it over multiple years: Reggie Jackson in 1977-78, and Lou Gehrig in the last three games of 1928 and the Yankees' next appearance in 1932. Springer and Taylor combined for 11 extra-base hits in the series, easily the record out of the leadoff spot. The Indians and Marlins in 1997 got 9 XBH from the top of the order, and that required three different batters.

Springer's homer also knocked Yu Darvish out of the game having recorded just five outs and given up four earned runs, identical to his Game 3 line. He's the only pitcher in postseason history to have two such starts in the same year; the only one to do it at all was the Yankees' Bob Turley, once in 1955 and again in 1958. Another Yankee, Art Ditmar in 1960, is the only other pitcher to make two starts of less than 2 IP in the same World Series, regardless of runs allowed.

McCullers, meanwhile, who hit a total of four batters over a 14-start span from April to July, grazed Enrique Hernandez in the second (but escaped another jam with a leaping lineout/double play by Carlos Correa) and then hit Turner again in the 3rd before having to be removed. Not only did he become the first pitcher in postseason history to hit four batters in a game, he joined Darryl Kile (June 2, 1996, at St Louis) as the only pitchers in Astros history ever to do it. And when Brad Peacock got out of that jam, McCullers cemented his place as the first pitcher in (at least) the live-ball era to hit four batters but not give up a run.

Clayton Kershaw, who after Game 6 reportedly said he was ready to throw 27 innings if needed (he probably meant 27 outs, but that just made it funnier), came up 23 short, but he did keep the Astros off the board from the 3rd through the 6th. Only two other Dodgers had thrown four scoreless innings in relief in a World Series game, Larry Sherry in 1959 and Russ Myers in 1955. However, he was outdone by Charlie Morton who pitched the final four innings (and got to "bat" for himself in the top of the 9th because he was cruising) and allowed just two hits. Morton was credited with the win as the "most effective reliever" since McCullers didn't go five and the lead never changed, a slightly different twist than the famous Madison Bumgarner save in 2014. But before Bumgarner, only four other pitchers had fired the final four-plus innings of a World Series clincher while allowing two hits or fewer. The last was our friend Bob Turley of the Yankees, who redeemed himself in Game 7 of the '58 Series after his disastrous start in Game 2. (Joe Page 1947, Dolf Luque 1933, and Rube Walberg 1929 are the others.)

In the end, those five hits were enough for the Astros to win their first championship as the Dodgers stranded 10 runners on base and went just 1-for-13 in scoring position. Houston is just the fourth team to win a title on the road with five or fewer hits in the clinching game, joining the 1983 Orioles, 1955 Dodgers, and 1923 Yankees.

And as mentioned at the end of our LCS post, the Dodgers won the NL pennant two days before the Astros outlasted the Yankees in Game 7. That makes an amazing nine straight seasons that the team with the longer layoff lost the World Series.

So Now What?

213 days 10 hours 46 minutes later, it's all over. (Check out the link in the top bar for this data going back 25 seasons.) If you add up the collective length of all 2,468 of those games this season, it's over 324 days, so you can start watching them back-to-back now and be entertained until the middle of next September. We'll be around with some superlatives from this season, some fun pieces from our Kernels Rules Desk, and whatever else tickles our fancy.

And we've updated our clock at the top of each post so it's already counting down to 1:10 pm on March 29. It may not seem like it now, but it'll be here before you know it. Thanks for a great season.

(Image credit: AZQuotes.com)

Don't Call It A Comeback

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


I want to read about the ALCS first.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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



Houston, We Have A Pennant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


So Now What?

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

Long Division

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

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


That Escalated Quickly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Threes Are Wild

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

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

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

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

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

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Snake Charmers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ai No Correa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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No Hits? No Problem.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Clubhouse Lost, Clubhouse Regained

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And then there were four.