Game Notes, 10/11/2025 – LDS Day 8

When Jim Thome took Derek Lowe deep in the bottom of the third inning in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS, the Indians took an 8-7 lead over the Red Sox and Thome already had his second two-run home run of the contest.  Again, this was the third inning.  Then again, just the day before, Boston had defeated Cleveland, 23-7, to force this winner-take-all Game 5.  Chaos, offensive showcasing at its most (take your pick) thrilling, metronomic, propulsive, belligerent.  8-7 after three innings, five home runs already bashed.  John Valentin’s sac fly in the top of the fourth tied the matter at eight, and then, then, then, crickets.  Thanks – in a large way – to Boston’s Pedro Martínez.  

Pedro set ‘em down 1-2-3 in the fourth.  He worked around a walk with two strikeouts in both the fifth and the sixth and fanned two more in the seventh.  By this time, the Red Sox had the lead, thanks to a Troy O’Leary three-run jack – the sixth home run in this winner-take-all game (no postseason contest for all the marbles, before or since, has ever seen more).  Martínez worked yet another scoreless, hitless frame in the eighth and then, in the manner of the biggest band in the world saving that song for the encore, set the Indians down in order in the ninth, finishing the game with a strikeout.  Amid the most homer-laden winner-take-all game the old ballgame had ever seen, Pedro simply waved his wand and made it all go away.  

An LDS Game 5 featuring a lot of home runs and a relief pitcher logging some serious innings to pick up his team and the win?  Hmm, sounds familiar.

*Cubs v. Brewers*

In their NLDS Game 5, the Brewers defeated the Cubs, 3-1, to advance to the NLCS.  

Milwaukee’s win made home teams 71-67 all-time in postseason winner-take-all contests.  Overall, The Brewers improved to 3-5 in all-or-nothing affairs and the Cubs fell to 5-5.  The Brewers are headed to their first NLCS since 2018, when they lost in seven games to their 2025 opponent, the Dodgers.

In this contest for the whole shebang, Jacob Misiorowski threw four innings in relief that featured one run allowed with three strikeouts and pocketed the win.  The rookie finished this NLDS with a 2-0 record, picking up both wins in relief as he posted a 1.29 ERA in seven innings.  His particular contribution gives him an interesting place in LDS/postseason lore.

~The right-hander is one of eight relievers in LDS history to record multiple wins.  Among this octet, he claims the most total innings pitched.  The full assortment of names and a few numbers:

LDS:  2+ Wins, 0 Games Started

1995    Alejandro Peña goes 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 3.0 IP for the Braves

1996    Armando Benítez goes 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in 4.0 IP for the Orioles

2002    Francisco Rodríguez goes 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA in 5.2 IP for the Angels

2002    Jeff Fassero goes 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 2.2 IP for the Cardinals

2003    Scott Williamson goes 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 5.0 IP for the Red Sox

2003    Carl Pavano goes 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 2.2 IP for the Marlins

2014    Marco Gonzales goes 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 3.0 IP for the Cardinals

2025    Jacob Misiorowski goes 2-0 with 1.29 ERA in 7.0 IP for the Brewers

~Misiorowski is one of nine pitchers in postseason history to begin his career with wins in relief in each of his first two playoff appearances.  This nonet evolves like this:

Rosy Ryan wins Game 1s in both the 1922 and 1923 World Series for the Giants

Steve Crawford wins Game 5 of the ALCS and Game 2 of the World Series for the 1986 Red Sox

Randy Myers wins Games 1 and 3 of the 1988 NLCS for the Mets

Gene Nelson wins Games 2 and 3 of the 1988 ALCS for the Athletics

Francisco Rodríguez wins Games 2 and 3 of the 2002 ALDS for the Angels

David Robertson wins Game 2s in both the ALDS and ALCS for the 2009 Yankees

Yusmeiro Petit wins Game 2 of the NLDS and Game 4 of the NLCS for the 2014 Giants

Daniel Palencia wins Games 1 and 3 of the 2025 NLWC for the Cubs

Jacob Misiorowski wins Games 2 and 5 of the 2025 NLDS for the Brewers

~The roster of relief pitchers recording a win in a winner-take-all contest runs through 64 names now that Misiorowski’s has been inked in.  The Brewers’ rookie is one of nine to have thrown at least four innings in such an outing, with his peers here among the more notable and celebrated appearances.  The two most famous – Walter Johnson’s four scoreless frames for the Senators in Game 7 of the 1924 World Series and Pedro Martínez’s six hitless innings for the Red Sox in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS.  The others who racked up at least four innings pitched:  

Bob Turley (6.2 IP for the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1958 World Series)

Charlie Leibrandt (5.1 IP for the Royals in Game 7 of the 1985 ALCS)

Ervin Santana (5.1 IP for the Angels in Game 5 of the 2005 ALDS)

Joe Page (5.0 IP for the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1947 World Series)

Ray Kremer (4.0 IP for the Pirates in Game 7 of the 1925 World Series)

Charlie Morton (4.0 IP for the Astros in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series)

~ Misiorowski became the second Brewers pitcher to win multiple games in a single round of postseason play.  Before him, it was only Mike Caldwell, who went 2-0 in a pair of starts and one relief appearance for Milwaukee in the 1982 Fall Classic.

Andrew Vaughn homered in the win and finished the five-game NLDS with a 1.126 OPS that was the best among all Brewers regulars.  

~Vaughn’s OPS – for any Brewer in any single series with at least 15 plate appearances – is about as good as anyone has ever done; there is a Johnny Bench handful of Brewers that have reached 1.000, including another representative from the 2025 NLDS.  Here’s how all seven look when arranged from highest to lowest OPS.

Highest OPS in a Postseason Series (min. 15 PA) – Brewers

1.460    Ryan Braun in the 2011 NLDS

1.126    Andrew Vaughn in the 2025 NLDS

1.088    Jackson Chourio in the 2025 NLDS

1.072    Robin Yount in the 1982 World Series

1.065    Paul Molitor in the 1982 ALCS

1.005    Jerry Hairston, Jr. in the 2011 NLCS

1.000    J.J. Hardy in the 2008 NLDS

~Vaughn had his first taste of postseason play as a member of the White Sox in the 2021 ALDS (he went 2-for-5 with a double in one start and one appearance off the bench).  All told, he is slashing .316/.409/.684 in his seven-game postseason career.  There are a fewer than 100 players in postseason history to carry a .300/.400/.600 line with at least 20 plate appearances after seven career postseason games (this is not counting the five players who never reached seven games but whose other numbers qualified; like Don Mattingly, whose entire postseason career consisted of five games in which he slashed .417/.440/.708 in 25 plate appearances).  Arranged from highest to lowest OPS, Vaughn’s 1.093 is nearer to the low end, far away from the top guys Colby Rasmus (1.788), Jorge Soler (1.705), Carlos Beltrán (1.667), Ken Griffey, Jr. (1.552) and Hank Gowdy (1.505).   Much closer to the top than Vaughn:  his teammate, Jackson Chourio, whose seven-game start had him with a 1.366 OPS.  Now, with the NLDS Game 5 from 2025 in the books, Chourio is at eight games and a lifetime .414/.452/.793/1.245 slash line in 31 plate appearances.  

~Chourio, who drew a walk in the Game 5 win, owns the 29th highest OPS for any player through eight career postseason games and at least 25 plate appearances.  When ages are incorporated into the stew, his status rockets …

→There are so few players in postseason history to have accumulated so much postseason time before turning 22 years old; Chourio is one of 18 to have at least 30 plate appearances. There are a few Hall of Famers from long, long ago on this roster numbering 18 – Ty Cobb, Travis Jackson and Freddie Lindstrom; inner circle Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle is one of the 18 as well.  More recently, Miguel Cabrera and Bryce Harper are a part of the 18, too.  When all 18 are arranged from highest to lowest OPS at this stage, none of those names appear in the top five (although Mantle comes close, owning the sixth-best mark at .898).  On the other hand, our man Chourio does quite well.

Before Turning 22 Years Old:  30+ Postseason PA and a Lifetime OPS of at Least .900

1.245    Jackson Chourio

1.101    Ronald Acuña, Jr.

1.072    Rafael Devers

.927      Juan Soto

.917      Evan Carter

Seiya Suzuki’s solo home run in the second inning provided the Cubs with their only scoring of the night and completed the outfielder’s powerful introduction to postseason baseball.  In eight games this year, Suzuki generated six extra-base hits (three doubles and three homers).  He’s one of 49 players in history to have at least six extra-base hits through his first eight career postseason games, with the top talliers being Carlos Beltrán (10), Nomar Garciaparra (8), Jim Edmonds (8) and Colby Rasmus (8).  One other Cub makes this list – Jorge Soler, who had six through his first eight in 2015-2016.

This Brewers-Cubs Game 5 tilt, on the offensive side, was all about the longball, with four solo homers being the full story.  So in a nod to this outsized influence, we’ll conclude this LDS portion of Game Notes with a special look at longballs in winner-take-all contests.

Brewers – HRs in Winner-Take All Games

1981 ALDS, G5:     Gorman Thomas

1982 ALCS, G5:     Ben Oglivie*

1982 WS, G7:        Ben Oglivie

2018 NLCS, G7:    Christian Yelich

2019 NLWC:          Yasmani Grandal, Eric Thames

2024 NLWC, G3:   Jake Bauers, Sal Frelick

2025 NLDS, G5:    William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn, Brice Turang

Cubs – HRs in Winner-Take All Games

1984 NLCS, G5:     Leon Durham, Jody Davis

2003 NLDS, G5:     Alex S. Gonzalez, Aramis Ramírez

2003 NLCS, G7:     Kerry Wood, Moisés Alou, Troy O’Leary*

2015 NLWC:           Kyle Schwarber*, Dexter Fowler*

2016 WS, G7:         Dexter Fowler, Javier Báez, David Ross*

2025 NLWC, G3:    Michael Busch

2025 NLDS, G5:     Seiya Suzuki

*Oglivie, O’Leary, Schwarber, Fowler and Ross are five of 29 players in history to have homered in multiple winner-take-all contests.  Aaron Judge has gone yard in four of them, the most.  

Most Winner-Take-All Games With a HR

4    Aaron Judge

3    Bill Skowron, Jose Altuve, Kiké Hernández, Giancarlo Stanton

2    Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Del Crandall, Reggie Jackson, Ben Oglivie, Dwight Evans, Troy O’Leary,                David Justice, Miguel Cabrera, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, David Ross, Shin-Soo Choo, Delmon Young,        José Bautista, Edwin Encarnación, Daniel Murphy, Dexter Fowler, Daniel Descalso, Didi Gregorius,                  Howie Kendrick, Anthony Rendon, Cody Bellinger, Kyle Schwarber

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