“Sandy Koufax for two weeks …”
For nearly 20 years, that’s how I’ve thought of (and described to others) what Kenny Rogers did from October 6 through October 22 in 2006. That was, and is, overstating the case a little bit, but somehow the hyperbole seems appropriate, for what that southpaw accomplished – the transformation and brilliance that emanated from a trio of mounds that fall – was nothing short of legendary. Entering the 2006 postseason, Rogers had been – how shall it be described? – a cure-all for whatever was ailing an offense when it came to postseason baseball. He owned a composite 0-3 record in nine playoff games (five starts), an 8.85 ERA built from a 2.361 WHIP, more walks (16) than K’s (15) and an opponent-average of .376. Yeesh.
And then, 2006.
The metamorphosis began with an ALDS start against the Yankees, a club that had once experienced Rogers’ postseason stumbles firsthand: 7.2 innings and 0 runs in a 6-0 win. It continued with an ALCS start against the Athletics: 7.1 innings and 0 runs in a 3-0 victory. It crested with a World Series start against the Cardinals: 8.0 innings of two-hit ball that yielded no runs allowed in a 3-1 win. All told, the 41-year-old worked 23.0 frames, allowed nine hits and seven walks with 19 strikeouts and, with that pristine 0.00 ERA, pocketed three wins.
“Sandy Koufax for two weeks …”
*Mariners v. Blue Jays, ALCS Game 4*
In an 8-2 victory over Seattle, Toronto’s Max Scherzer recorded the win, going five-and-two-thirds innings and allowing two runs as the Blue Jays evened their best-of-seven series against the Mariners, two games apiece. The right-hander gave up three hits and walked four while striking out five.
~At 41 years and 81 days old, Scherzer became the 30th oldest pitcher to make a postseason start. Jack Quinn is the oldest, 46 years and 103 days old for a Game 4 start in the 1929 World Series.
~Scherzer is one of 35 postseason starting pitchers to be at least 41 years old. With this victory, he’s one of 10 to record a win and the first since Kenny Rogers in Game 2 of the 2006 World Series. The whole collection, from oldest to youngest.
43 years, 72 days Roger Clemens in Game 3, 2005 NLCS
42 years, 73 days Roger Clemens in Game 3, 2004 NLCS
42 years, 63 days Roger Clemens in Game 1, 2004 NLDS
41 years, 346 days Kenny Rogers in Game 2, 2006 WS
41 years, 337 days Kenny Rogers in Game 3, 2006 ALCS
41 years, 330 days Kenny Rogers in Game 3, 2006 ALDS
41 years, 156 days Dennis Martínez in Game 6, 1995 ALCS
41 years, 81 days Max Scherzer in Game 4, 2025 ALCS
41 years, 68 days Roger Clemens in Game 3, 2003 ALCS
41 years, 61 days Roger Clemens in Game 3, 2003 ALDS
~Among the 35 postseason starters to be at least 41 years old, Scherzer’s Game Score for his Game 4 outing (56) is tied for the 10th best. In this ordering, Kenny Rogers owns the three best Game Scores, apexing with an 80 in his 2006 World Series start in Game 2.
~Scherzer has made 26 postseason starts, the eighth most in history (he’s one behind John Smoltz). Among this octet, Scherzer’s postseason output (which also includes five relief appearances) fares just okay in some spots, shines in others – he’s tied for fifth in winning percentage, is tied for fifth in ERA and owns the fourth lowest WHIP; he also possesses the lowest hits/9 and the highest K’s/9. Here’s all of those categories and their numbers for all eight pitchers, sorted by starts.
| Player | GS | IP | W | L | W-L% | ERA | WHIP | H/9 | K/9 |
| Andy Pettitte | 44 | 276.2 | 19 | 11 | .633 | 3.81 | 1.305 | 9.3 | 6.0 |
| Justin Verlander | 37 | 226.0 | 17 | 12 | .586 | 3.58 | 1.119 | 7.1 | 9.7 |
| Tom Glavine | 35 | 218.1 | 14 | 16 | .467 | 3.30 | 1.273 | 7.9 | 5.9 |
| Roger Clemens | 34 | 199.0 | 12 | 8 | .600 | 3.75 | 1.221 | 7.8 | 7.8 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 32 | 196.1 | 13 | 13 | .500 | 4.63 | 1.146 | 7.8 | 9.8 |
| Greg Maddux | 30 | 198.0 | 11 | 14 | .440 | 3.27 | 1.242 | 8.9 | 5.7 |
| John Smoltz | 27 | 209.0 | 15 | 4 | .789 | 2.67 | 1.144 | 7.4 | 8.6 |
| Max Scherzer | 26 | 148.2 | 8 | 8 | .500 | 3.75 | 1.157 | 6.8 | 10.7 |
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. homered again, giving the Blue Jays’ first baseman five longballs in the 2025 postseason.
~Guerrero has gone yard more times in a single postseason than any other Blue Jay, out-knocking José Bautista and his four longballs from 2015. Career-wise, Guerrero and his five leave him just behind the club’s lifetime leaders, Bautista and Joe Carter, each with six.
~Guerrero, who also singled in the game, is now slashing .455/.500/.970/1.470 in his eight games this postseason. Deconstructing that slash line to its components and looking at all players with at least 25 plate appearances in any postseason reveals the following:
→Guerrero’s .455 average would tie for the 17th highest, matched with the Yankees’ Jake Powell (1936) and the Angels’ Bob Boone (1986).
→Guerrero’s .500 on-base percentage would tie many others for 39th. The oldest .500-on-the-dot campaign comes from the Senators’ Joe Harris (1925) and the most recent from the Padres’ Fernando Tatis, Jr. in 2024.
→Guerrero’s .970 slugging percentage would land as the ninth highest, in between Yordan Alvarez’s .977 for the Astros in 2023 and Billy Martin’s .958 for the 1953 Yankees.
→Guerrero’s 1.470 OPS would be the 10th best. The top-12 marks, since Guerrero’s is fluid.
1.747 Manny Ramírez in 2008 for the Dodgers
1.705 Jorge Soler in 2015 for the Cubs
1.559 Barry Bonds in 2002 for the Giants
1.557 Carlos Beltrán in 2004 for the Astros
1.556 Babe Ruth in 1923 for the Yankees
1.509 Rickey Henderson in 1989 for the Athletics
1.500 Fernando Tatis, Jr. in 2024 for the Padres
1.487 Yordan Alvarez in 2023 for the Astros
1.478 Billy Martin in 1953 for the Yankees
1.470 Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. in 2025 for the Blue Jays
1.456 Billy Hatcher in 1990 for the Reds
1.448 Babe Ruth in 1926 for the Yankees
Toronto’s Ernie Clement went 2-for-5 with a run scored. The infielder has scored at least one run in seven of his eight postseason games this year, which also happen to be the first eight postseason games of his career. 10 players have opened their postseason experiences scoring in seven of their first eight, with Home Run Baker – for the 1910 and 1911 Athletics – crossing the plate in all eight of his first eight. The others at seven, before Clement added his name: Charlie Keller, Lou Whitaker, Barry Larkin, Nomar Garciaparra, Carlos Beltrán, Melvin (B.J.) Upton, Daniel Murphy and Orlando Arcia.
Toronto’s number nine hitter Andrés Giménez drove in four runs. The shortstop became the 12th player in postseason history to record at least four RBI from the lowest spot in the order, a lineage that begins with a pair of Orioles pitchers from 1970 – Mike Cuellar in Game 1 of the ALCS and Dave McNally in Game 3 of the World Series. Two players – Boston’s Trot Nixon in Game 4 of the 1999 ALDS and the Angels’ Adam Kennedy in Game 5 of the 2002 ALCS – drove in five runs from the ninth spot.
In the loss, Seattle’s first baseman Josh Naylor went 3-for-3 with a homer and a walk – his fourth three-hit game of the 2025 postseason. Already, those four tie the 28-year-old for the second most in any single postseason, with a few of his compadres having a presence of some kind in this 2025 ALCS. There’s the only guy with five – Naylor’s current teammate Randy Arozarena, who managed the feat for the Rays in 2020. There are two former Mariners – Edgar Martínez and Jay Buhner, both from 1995. Outside of those three, Albert Pujols (2004) and Jose Altuve (2017) also produced a quartet of three-hit games.
The Mariners win the first two games of this 2025 ALCS on the road … the Blue Jays come back with two road wins of their own. This sequence marked the third time since 1985 (when the LCS expanded to a best-of-seven format) that the road team won each of the first four games.
1993: Blue Jays open up 2-0 on road, White Sox win Games 3 and 4 on the road.
2023: All seven games between the Rangers and Astros are won by the road team
2025: Mariners open up 2-0 on the road; Blue Jays win Games 3 and 4 on the road
*Dodgers v. Brewers, NLCS Game 3*
Tyler Glasnow (5.2 IP, 3 Hits, 1 Run) and four Dodgers relievers combined on a four-hitter as their club rolled to a 3-0 series lead by way of a 3-1 win over the Brewers.
~In this NLCS, the Dodgers’ staff has posted a 1.00 ERA. To go so low for an entire LCS (at least since the series has used a best-of-seven format) is almost unprecedented. The five lowest marks for an entire ALCS or NLCS since 1985 are below:
1.00 1990 Athletics in a four-game sweep
1.15 1995 Braves in a four-game sweep
1.25 2019 Nationals in a four-game sweep
1.38 2012 Tigers in a four-game sweep
1.43 2016 Indians in a 4-1 series win
~Los Angeles has opened this 2025 postseason with eight wins through nine games (they took the NLWC 2-0 over the Reds and followed with a 3-1 series win over Philadelphia in the NLDS). There are a few other teams to have piled up so many wins so early into a postseason – breaking those antecedent clubs down by who went on to win the World Series and who did not:
8 Postseason Wins Through First Nine Games
Won the World Series: 1989 Athletics, 1995 Braves, 1999 Yankees, 2005 White Sox, 2022 Astros
Did Not Win the World Series: 2014 Royals, 2016 Indians, 2017 Dodgers, 2020 Braves
The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts opened the scoring with an RBI double in the bottom of the first, his 87th career postseason hit (35th going for extra bases) and his 40th career postseason RBI. In these three categories, Betts …
~Claims the 15th-most hits, in between David Ortiz (88) and Pete Rose/Justin Turner (86).
~Is tied, with Jorge Posada, for the 11th most extra-base hits.
~Is tied, with Mickey Mantle, for the 24th most RBI.
Freddie Freeman drew a pair of walks and scored a run in the Dodgers’ win. With 36 career postseason runs scored, the first baseman is tied with another first sacker – Fred McGriff – for 41st on the all-time list. Freeman has reached safely 114 times in his postseason career – the same number of times as Reggie Jackson and another current Dodger, Max Muncy. All three are tied for 23rd all-time.
Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin doubled and tripled and stole a base in the loss, providing a line that doesn’t appear often as part of a postseason box score. Currently and chronologically, the list of everyone who has done this is bookended by third basemen.
Postseason: Players with a Double, a Triple and a Steal in a Game
1912 WS, G2 Third Baseman Buck Herzog for the Giants
1914 WS, G1 Catcher Hank Gowdy for the Braves
1921 WS, G3 Outfielder George J. Burns for the Giants
1950 WS, G2 Shortstop Granny Hamner for the Phillies
1968 WS, G4 Outfielder Lou Brock for the Cardinals
1985 NLCS, G6 Shortstop Mariano Duncan for the Dodgers
1993 WS, G4 Outfielder Devon White for the Blue Jays
2008 ALCS, G4 Outfielder Carl Crawford for the Rays
2025 NLCS, G3 Third Baseman Caleb Durbin for the Brewers
Since 1985, 10 teams have opened an LCS on the road and have sprinted out to a 3-0 series advantage. The 2025 Dodgers join these clubs:
1988 Athletics, who go on to sweep the Red Sox
1990 Athletics, who go on to sweep the Red Sox
1995 Braves, who go on to sweep the Reds
1998 Padres, who ultimately take the series in six games over the Braves
2006 Tigers, who go on to sweep the Athletics
2007 Rockies, who go on to sweep the Diamondbacks
2012 Tigers, who go on to sweep the Yankees
2014 Royals, who go on to sweep the Orioles
2019 Nationals, who go on to sweep the Cardinals
This 3-1 victory gave the Dodgers 46 wins in the League Championship Series, second to only the Yankees’ 54. The Cardinals have the next most (38), followed by the Braves (34), Astros (34) and Red Sox (32).
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.