Game Notes, 10/19/2024 – LCS Day 7

During the 2024 regular season, Juan Soto claimed partnership as one-half of one of three distinct hitting duos in the old pastime’s history to each produce a 40-HR, 100-walk, 100-RBI season.  The 25-year-old Soto and his hitting mate in the feat, Aaron Judge, joined Tigers Norm Cash and Rocky Colavito from 1961, and … of course, the dynamic duo that towers above the rest in virtually every way, shape and form:  Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.  Those two Yankees accomplished this particular statistical feat in 1927, 1930 and 1931.  Somehow (well, we know how – Grove and Foxx and Simmons and Cochrane know how, too) Ruth and Gehrig only pushed the Yankees to the Fall Classic in one of those years, in 1927.  You may have heard about the murderous capabilities of that club.

During the Yankees’ sweep of the Pirates in the ’27 Fall Classic, Ruth and Gehrig did what they did:  bopped and banged and blasted away.  Ruth’s slugging and on-base percentages tally to 1.271 for the series; Gehrig’s to 1.207.  And that brings things back to Soto.  

In the 2024 postseason, Soto has again been a colleague in a pairing of thumpers, this time with Giancarlo Stanton; this latest New York tandem has inserted themselves into their own association with Gehrig and Ruth.  

It’s been that kind of year for Soto – no matter the month on the calendar, he’s doing things with a bat in his hands (and sometimes just resting near his shoulder) that places him alongside the giants of the game.

ALCS MVP Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto produced five combined runs on two combined swings and the Yankees defeated the Guardians 5-2 to claim the pennant.  

~There have been 25 LCS home runs that have come in the ninth inning or later in the final game of the series, with 11 of them giving the hitter’s team the lead (or win), effectively (or literally) propelling the team to the pennant.  Soto’s is the latest of those 11:

1976 ALCS, G5:  Chris Chambliss wins the pennant for the Yankees in the 9th 

1981 NLCS, G5:  Rick Monday gives the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the 9th (twtp!)*

1983 ALCS, G4:  Tito Landrum gives the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the 10th (twtp!)*

1985 NLCS, G6:  Jack Clark gives the Cardinals a 7-5 lead in the 9th (twtp!)*

1997 ALCS, G6:  Tony Fernández gives the Indians a 1-0 lead in the 11th (twtp!)*

2003 ALCS, G7:  Aaron Boone wins the pennant for the Yankees in the 11th 

2006 ALCS, G4:  Magglio Ordóñez wins the pennant for the Tigers in the 9th

2006 NLCS, G7:  Yadier Molina gives the Cardinals a 3-1 lead in the 9th (twtp!)*

2014 NLCS, G5:  Travis Ishikawa wins the pennant for the Giants in the 9th

2019 NLCS, G6:  Jose Altuve wins the pennant for the Astros in the 9th

2024 ALCS, G5:  Juan Soto gives the Yankees a 5-2 lead in the 10th (twtp!)*

twtp! = team wins the pennant!

~Soto’s longball marked the second home run this postseason to either directly or effectively push his team into the next round.  In Game 3 of the NLWC round, the Mets’ Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to give New York the lead; a half-inning later, the Mets were celebrating a trip to the NLDS.  

~Soto‘s home run placed a few exclamation points on an ALCS performance that featured a .368/.478/.895 slash line.  

*Soto’s 1.373 OPS in this series resides as the 52nd best in LCS history (min. 12 PA).  Lloyd McClendon’s 1.932 in 1992 still reigns supreme.  Soto’s figure is the ninth best in Yankees annals: 

1.667  Darryl Strawberry in 1996

1.531  Bernie Williams in 1996

1.529  Reggie Jackson in 1978

1.519  Álex Rodríguez in 2009

1.488  Graig Nettles in 1981

1.452  Chris Chambliss in 1976

1.417  Bob Watson in 1980

1.378  Paul O’Neill in 2001

1.373  Juan Soto in 2024

*Soto’s .895 slugging % ranks as the 10th best in an LCS for the Yankees (min. 12 PA).  Strawberry’s 1.167 in 1996 is the leader.

~This ALCS gave Soto his highest OPS in any playoff series, and gave the 25-year-old three separate rounds where he surpassed a 1.000 OPS.  He posted a 1.020 in the 2019 NLDS and a 1.178 for that year’s World Series.  Soto is one of six players to have at least three rounds with an OPS of at least 1.000 (min. 12 PA) before turning 26 years old:  

Albert Pujols 3

Chipper Jones 4

Derek Jeter 3

Juan Soto 3

Rafael Devers 4

Randy Arozarena 3

Yordan Alvarez 4

~With this ALCS effort, Soto owns a career .906 OPS in 168 postseason plate appearances.  Among the 42 players in postseason history to reach at least 100 plate appearances through their age-25 season, Soto’s .906 ranks as the sixth highest. Two players – Albert Pujols and Chipper Jones – are above 1.000, with Pujols’ 1.045 the best mark.  Those two are followed by Javy López, Rafael Devers and Roberto Alomar.  Soto is just ahead of Mickey Mantle, who is the last player on this list to be at .900 or better.

~Soto has 10 career postseason home runs.  That tally represents the second highest for any player before his 26th birthday.  On this list, Soto’s 10 matches him with Albert Pujols, Alex Bregman and Randy Arozarena.  Carlos Correa has 11.  Soto will stay forever at 10, as his 26th birthday comes on Day 1 of this year’s World Series.

~Stanton’s two-run home run in the sixth gave the slugger four round-trippers in the series, five in this year’s playoffs and 16 in his postseason career.   

*The four in an ALCS tied him with Robinson Cano (2010) for the team record.

*The five in a single postseason leaves him one shy of the franchise high mark, shared by Bernie Williams (1996), Álex Rodríguez (2009) and Stanton (2020).

*The 16 in his postseason career ties him with Carlos Beltrán for 17th all-time.

~Two of Stanton’s home runs in this ALCS put the Yankees into the lead or tied the game, and both came in the sixth inning or later.  Trying to match this volume with these circumstances, Stanton is one of six players in LCS history to have – in one series – multiple home runs in the sixth inning or later that tied the game or put his team ahead.

Pete Rose               1973 NLCS

Brian Jordan           1999 NLCS

Magglio Ordóñez    2006 ALCS

Nelson Cruz            2011 ALCS

Jose Altuve              2021 ALCS

Giancarlo Stanton    2024 ALCS

~Three of Stanton’s home runs in the 2024 postseason put the Yankees into the lead or tied the game while coming in the sixth inning or later.  He is the first Yankee to have at least three of these in a single postseason since Raul Ibañez had three in 2012.  Before Ibañez, Álex Rodríguez – with three in 2009 – was the last.

~With Soto posting a 1.373 OPS to top Stanton’s 1.222, the Yankees’ duo is one of eight different New York combos to each post a 1.200 or better in the same World Series or LCS (with a min. of 12 PA).  

World Series

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, 1927, 1928, 1932

Gene Woodling and Bobby Brown, 1949

Elston Howard and Mickey Mantle, 1960

Johnny Blanchard and Héctor López, 1961

Scott Brosius and Ricky Ledée, 1998

Paul O’Neill and Derek Jeter, 2000

League Championship Series

Bernie Williams and Darryl Strawberry, 1996

Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto, 2024

Gleyber Torres went 2-for-5 with a run scored in the Yankees’ victory. Through two rounds, Torres – who has batted leadoff in every game this postseason – paces New York in runs scored (9) and is tied with Juan Soto for the team lead in times on base (18) and hits (11).  Derek Jeter is the single-year leader for the Yankees when it comes to runs scored, hits and times on base while batting in the top spot in the lineup.  In 2009, Jeter posted the top marks in all three categories, with 14 runs, 22 hits and 32 times on base.   

With two innings of one-hit, no-run ball, Luke Weaver became the fourth Yankees reliever to be recorded as the winning pitcher in a pennant-winning LCS contest.  Dick Tidrow and Sparky Lyke got the honors in 1976 and 1977, respectively.  Mariano Rivera held the ‘W’ in 2003.  This quartet, in these four outings, combined for 7.1 innings of five-hit, no-run ball with five strikeouts.

Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe will enter the World Series with eight walks on his postseason record.  For a single year of playoffs by any player in an age-23 or younger season, Volpe’s eight ties him with Édgar Rentería (1997) for the seventh most.  Volpe needs two to tie John Milner (1973) and Evan Carter (2023) for the most.

This 2024 ALCS marked the seventh postseason matchup between New York and Cleveland.  The Yankees have taken five of the seven series.

Cleveland wins:  1997 ALDS, 2007 ALDS

New York wins:  1998 ALCS, 2017 ALDS, 2020 ALWC, 2022 ALDS, 2024 ALCS

The Yankees will be playing in their 41st World Series.  The two teams with the next-most number of pennants in the World Series era have combined for 41 (Dodgers have 21 and the Giants 20).

Cleveland’s Steven Kwan went 1-for-5 to finish his 2024 postseason with 16 hits and a .381 average in 10 games.  Kwan’s hits-tally stands as the ninth most for any player in the franchise’s postseason books.  The eight players above him all were members of the clubs in 1995, 1997 or 2016, when Cleveland reached the World Series.  For players in franchise history with a minimum of 25 plate appearances, Kwan’s .381 average is the top mark, surpassing Tony Fernández’s .357 in 1997.  

Aside from Carlos Rodon in Game 1 of this series, no starter picked up a win during the ALCS.  This entire postseason, starters have generated 12 checkmarks in the personal win column.  Since 1995, when the Division Series round was implemented for good, the fewest wins by starting pitchers in a completed postseason is 13, which happened in 2014.  Madison Bumgarner was responsible for four of them that year, with no other starter being represented more than once.  

Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.