During the 1995 regular season, the Cleveland Indians averaged 5.8 runs per game while winning 69 percent of their contests. This combination had last been seen (and perhaps ducked away from) in 1939, when the Yankees of Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Bill Dickey, Red Rolfe, Joe Gordon and George Selkirk were blasting and rolling their way to a fourth straight World Series title. The 1995 Indians – with Albert Belle, Jim Thome, Manny Ramírez, Eddie Murray, Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga and Sandy Alomar – were blasters and rollers of a similar sort, pacing the entire Major Leagues in runs, hits, home runs, total bases, extra-base hits, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging. Steamroller, powerhouse: whatever descriptor for a machine that seemingly had no off switch, no solution for quieting, let alone disassembling. Unless, perhaps, the key was to call on an inner-circle moundsman at the height of his powers. On October, 21, 1995, that was the matchup – the dynamo Indians offense staring down Greg Maddux. Pitch 1 was a ball … pitch 95 ended things, a two-hit masterpiece from a soon-to-be four-time Cy Young Award winner, a brilliant defusing of the situation in a potentially explosive environment – Game 1 of the Fall Classic.
Maddux’s complete game against an offense just absolutely humming reverberates to this day, especially when a cannonade like the one currently being showcased by the 2025 Blue Jays (averaging 6.8 runs during the 2025 postseason, entering Game 2) is, from start to finish, stilled by a single pitcher.
*Dodgers @ Blue Jays, World Series Game 2*
Yoshinobu Yamamoto went the distance on a four-hitter to engineer the Dodgers toward a 5-1 victory and a split of the first two games in Toronto.
~Yamamoto – who fanned eight with no walks – recorded his second complete game of this year’s postseason and second in as many appearances, after his three-hitter in a 5-1 win over the Brewers in the NLCS. The postseason had last seen a pitcher with back-to-back complete games in a single year in 2001, when Curt Schilling strung together three in a row. Schilling v. Yamamoto:
2001 Schilling (NLDS G1 & G5, NLCS G3) 27.0 IP 0.67 ERA 13 Hits 30 K’s 4 BB
2025 Yamamoto (NLCS G2, WS G2) 18.0 IP 1.00 ERA 7 Hits 15 K’s 1 BB
~Yamamoto became the first Dodgers pitcher to hurl multiple complete games in a postseason since Orel Hershiser had three in 1988. That year, the right-hander posted a five-hit shutout against the Mets in the NLCS and then stymied the Athletics in the Fall Classic with a three-hit shutout in Game 2 and a four-hitter in a 5-2 win to clinch the Fall Classic in Game 5.
~There are six pitchers this century who’ve hurled multiple complete games in a single postseason. Here’s that sextet, with some numbers from their workaholic year.
| Player | CG | Team | W-L | ERA | GS | IP | H | SO | BB |
| Curt Schilling | 3 | 2001 D'Backs | 4-0 | 1.12 | 6 | 48.1 | 25 | 56 | 6 |
| Randy Johnson | 2 | 2001 D'Backs | 5-1 | 1.52 | 5 | 41.1 | 25 | 47 | 8 |
| Josh Beckett | 2 | 2003 Marlins | 2-2 | 2.11 | 5 | 42.2 | 21 | 47 | 12 |
| Cliff Lee | 2 | 2009 Phillies | 4-0 | 1.56 | 5 | 40.1 | 27 | 33 | 6 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 2 | 2014 Giants | 4-1 | 1.03 | 6 | 52.2 | 28 | 45 | 6 |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | 2 | 2025 Dodgers | 3-1 | 1.57 | 4 | 28.2 | 17 | 26 | 4 |
~Yamamoto’s effort lowered his ERA this postseason to 1.57 in his four starts. There are 194 pitchers to have at least four starts and at least 20.0 innings in a single postseason; Yamamoto’s 1.57 would rank as the 22nd lowest mark among all of them, in between the 1.56 from Cliff Lee in 2009 and Jon Lester in 2013 and the 1.61 from Tom Glavine in 1995. There are a few Dodgers who keep Yamamoto from being even higher on the list …
0.82 Burt Hooton in 1981 – second lowest among the 194
1.05 Orel Hershiser in 1988 – fifth lowest
1.50 Don Sutton in 1974 – 15th lowest
~So far, all of this contextualizing has been covering entire postseasons – now, let’s dig a little into the specificity of a World Series. For example, Yamamoto’s complete game marked the first in a World Series in a decade and only the seventh since 1995, the first postseason in the Wild Card Era. Those seven with some statistical and narrative detail, starting from the first …
1995 WS, G1: Greg Maddux allows two runs (both unearned) on two hits with four strikeouts and no walks. He faces only three batters over the minimum and throws 95 pitches in a Braves 3-2 win over the Indians.
2001 WS, G2: Randy Johnson hurls a three-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts and one walk. He faces three batters over the minimum, throws 111 pitches and comes away the big story in a 4-0 Diamondbacks win over the Yankees that gives Arizona a 2-0 lead in the series.
2003 WS, G6: Josh Beckett throws a five-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and two walks. He faces 32 batters, throws 107 pitches and is on the mound for the final pitch of the Fall Classic as the Marlins defeat the Yankees, 2-0, to clinch the title.
2009 WS, G1: In a 6-1 Phillies win over the Yankees, Cliff Lee throws a six-hitter, allowing one unearned run with 10 strikeouts and no walks while facing 32 batters and throwing 122 pitches.
2014 WS, G5: With the series tied at two games apiece, Madison Bumgarner throws a four-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and no walks. The lefty faces 31 batters and throws 117 pitches in the Giants’ 5-0 win over the Royals.
2015 WS, G2: Johnny Cueto throws a two-hitter and allows a run in his Royals’ 7-1 win over the Mets. The victory, which gives Kansas City a 2-0 lead in the series, sees Cueto fan four and walk three while facing 31 batters and throwing 122 pitches.
2025 WS, G2: Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws a four-hitter and allows a run while fanning eight with no walks. The righty faces 32 batters and throws 105 pitches in the 5-1 win to get his Dodgers even with the Blue Jays in the series.
Yamamoto’s batterymate, Will Smith, also contributed extensively on the offensive side, driving in three with a homer and a single. Before him, three other Dodgers backstops had authored a World Series line featuring a home run and at least three RBI: Roy Campanella in Game 3 in 1955; John Roseboro in Game 1 in 1963; and Steve Yeager in Game 5 in 1977. Like their newest companion, those three also squatted and put down signals for a starting pitcher who went the distance (Johnny Podres in ’55; Sandy Koufax in 1963; Don Sutton in ‘77).
Max Muncy got in on the action, doing what he’s done more than any other Dodger in the postseason – go yard. Muncy’s 15th career postseason longball tied him with Babe Ruth, Jayson Werth and a couple of current teammates – Freddie Freeman and Kiké Hernández – for 20th on the all-time list. Getting back to the Dodgers’ side of things, Muncy’s 15 give him a little more distance ahead of the number two guys, tied with 13 – Justin Turner and Corey Seager.
Freddie Freeman doubled, walked and scored a run. On the other side, George Springer doubled, was hit by a pitch and scored a run. The near mirror images present a good opportunity to take stock of where these long-time postseason staples currently find themselves on the lifetime rankings.
Runs
→Springer is at 56, 10th all-time and one behind Albert Pujols/Mookie Betts
→Freeman is at 37, tied with Babe Ruth, Jason Varitek and Édgar Rentería for 38th
Hits
→Springer is at 88, tied with David Ortiz for 15th
→Freeman is at 74, one behind Steve Garvey and Corey Seager for 23rd
Extra-Base Hits
→Springer has 44, four behind Manny Ramírez and Jose Altuve for third
→Freeman has 33, tied with Reggie Jackson, David Justice and Justin Turner for 13th
Total Bases
→Springer has 178, fifth most ever
→Freeman has 138, tied with Kenny Lofton for 18th
Times on Base
→Springer is at 128, two behind Tino Martinez for 15th
→Freeman is at 118, tied with Max Muncy for 22nd
Games Played
→Springer sits with 80, tied for 21st
→Freeman has 74, tied for 31st
Toronto’s sole run came from Alejandro Kirk’s bat via a sac fly. The RBI gave the catcher 10 for the postseason, moving him into a tie with Joe Carter (1993), Tony Fernández (1993), Roberto Alomar (1993) and Daulton Varsho (2025) for the fifth most in any postseason for any Blue Jay. Paul Molitor’s 13 in 1993 still lead, but the hold is tenuous, with Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. at 12.
~With Kirk part of the blend, there are 15 players who had a postseason in which they amassed double-digit RBI while playing at least 75% of their games at catcher. Rather than detail all the numbers, I thought it would be interesting to align all of the names by the postseason era in which they were the run production machines.
World Series Only (1903-1968)
Yogi Berra (1956)
World Series & LCS (1969-1980, 1982-1993)
Gene Tenace (1972), Gary Carter (1986)
World Series, LCS, LDS (1981, 1995-2011)
Sandy Alomar (1997), Charles Johnson (1997), Benito Santiago (2002), Iván Rodríguez (2003), Jason Varitek (2004, 2007), Yadier Molina (2011), Mike Napoli (2011)
World Series, LCS, LDS, LWC (2012-2025)
Travis d’Arnaud (2020), J.T. Realmuto (2023), Gabriel Moreno (2023), Alejandro Kirk (2025)
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.