Through his first 11 postseason contests, Fernando Tatis, Jr. is slashing .425/.531/.975. This is a pretty great start to playoff immortality and a fun excuse to look at each individual category (along with OPS) and see who was the head honcho when he was 11 games in (using a minimum of 35 plate appearances).
In batting average, Yankees backstop Thurman Munson owns the belt, sporting a .479 mark. In this case, Tatis, Jr. is tied for 10th.
For on-base percentage, another Yankee is king: Bernie Williams with a .579 stamp. Here, Tatis, Jr. is sixth, sandwiched between Carlos Beltrán and Will Clark.
In the slugging department, Beltrán and his 1.093 hold top honors. Tatis, Jr. is rising higher on the rungs, standing with the fourth-highest mark.
Beltrán also claims the highest OPS (1.651), and is followed by Colby Rasmus (1.610), Williams (1.532), Nomar Garciaparra (1.529) and Tatis, Jr. (1.506).
Whoo, not too bad at all.
Fernando Tatis, Jr. connected on his third home run of this NLDS as the Padres defeated the Dodgers 6-5 and took a 2-1 series lead.
~Tatis, Jr. is creeping closer to the LDS high mark for home runs, a level shared by Ken Griffey, Jr. (5 in 1995) and Juan González (5 in 1996).
~With four home runs in the 2024 postseason, Tatis, Jr. is tied with Jim Leyritz (1998) and Manny Machado (2022) for the most ever for a Padre in a single postseason.
~Tatis, Jr. also has a pair of doubles this postseason. His six extra-base hits leave him one shy of tying Machado’s seven in 2022 for the most in a single postseason for San Diego.
Teoscar Hernández connected on a grand slam in the Dodgers’ loss. Before this four-run, four-bagger, Los Angeles batters had five career postseason slams: Ron Cey (G1) and Dusty Baker (G2) in the 1977 NLCS; James Loney (G1) in the 2008 NLDS; Kiké Hernández (G5) in the 2017 NLCS; and Max Muncy (G3) in the 2020 NLCS. Like Hernández’s, Cey’s came in a loss.
Despite allowing five runs in five innings, San Diego starter Michael King picked up the victory. By Game Score, King’s effort – generating a 39 – is the worst in a postseason win since Marcus Stroman got saddled with a 35 in Game 3 of the 2015 ALCS. That night, the Blue Jays’ right-hander surrendered four runs on 11 hits and a walk in 6.1 innings and still picked up the ‘W’ in an 11-8 victory over the Royals. The lowest Game Score ever for a winning pitcher in the postseason came in Game 1 of the 2002 NLCS, when San Francisco’s Kirk Rueter allowed five runs on nine hits in 5.0 innings in a 9-6 victory – a slog working out to a Game Score of 29.
Sean Manaea allowed a run on three hits in seven innings and his Mets defeated the Phillies 7-2 to take a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-five NLDS.
~Manaea’s stinginess in the hit department for this outing mirrored his work in the second half of the 2024 campaign, when he held batters to a .185 average over 14 starts. That mark is the fifth lowest (min 14 GS) ever for a Mets hurler after the All-Star break.
Sid Fernandez .172 in 1985
Tom Seaver .176 in 1971
Jacob deGrom .179 in 2019
Sid Fernandez .184 in 1988
Sean Manaea .185 in 2024
~Manaea’s effort represents the 11th time a Mets pitcher has completed a postseason start with at least seven innings and no more than three hits allowed. Manaea is the first to do this since Noah Syndergaard in the 2015 NLWC against the Giants and the first southpaw on the list since Mike Hampton spun a three-hit shutout in Game 5 of the 2000 NLCS.
Pete Alonso drilled his third home run of the 2024 postseason in the Mets’ victory. The first baseman has played in nine postseason games and gone yard in four of them – a fairly rare occurrence. 23 players can make this statement, with two – Carlos Beltrán and the Mets’ Daniel Murphy – homering in seven of their first nine postseason contests. Eight of the 23 homered in five of their first nine, including current Phillies masher Kyle Schwarber. Among those tied with Alonso at four – Bryce Harper.
In the Phillies’ loss, Bryce Harper drove in a run with a single. Even with the quiet night, Harper carries a postseason .621 slugging percentage and 1.013 OPS. For all players in postseason history with at least 150 plate appearances (there are 195 of them), Harper’s slugging and OPS currently stand as the fifth highest.
~The top five slugging marks
.744 Babe Ruth
.731 Lou Gehrig
.631 Nelson Cruz
.627 George Brett
.621 Bryce Harper
~The top five OPS marks
1.214 Lou Gehrig
1.214 Babe Ruth
1.023 George Brett
1.021 Carlos Beltrán
1.013 Bryce Harper
Mark Vientos added a pair of singles to his postseason résumé, giving him three straight multi-hit efforts and a total of 10 hits through his first six postseason contests.
~Vientos is one of 57 players in history to have double-digit knocks through his first six contests, with Tim Anderson having the most – 16.
~Vientos’ 10 hits through his first six postseason games matches him with Carlos Delgado (2006) for the most by any player representing the Mets.
~Vientos’ three-game streak with at least two hits represents the second longest for a Mets player in a single year of playoff baseball. Todd Zeile (2000) and Daniel Murphy (2015) share the position for the longest streak, four games. Across all teams, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez’s streak of six straight in 2023 stands above the rest.
With the Mets and Padres winning their home games on Tuesday, home teams improved to 9-10 in the 2024 playoffs.
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.