By the time Sandy Alomar established a new Indians postseason record with his 10 RBI in the 1997 World Series, the 31-year-old catcher was a long established member of the team. He had pre-dated Manny and Lofton and Vizquel and Thome and had represented Cleveland in five All-Star Games; he […]
Collectively, the 20 most recent postseasons (2005-2024) have produced 85 examples of a starting pitcher finishing his work with at least seven innings and no runs allowed. Strolling through the list, one finds that Giants’ hurlers have the most such efforts, with 11. The Dodgers, Phillies and Tigers come next […]
League Division Series play has produced 39 winner-take-all contests – those ultimate, tension-filled testing grounds that have a way of squeezing out all of the possible drama. The very first year of this round – 1981 – was especially generous in its largesse, serving up three Game 5’s on the […]
Two innings after Willie Mays saved the day with The Catch, there was still no guarantee that Mays’ brilliance – likened to an optical illusion – would be remembered as an instrumental pivot in a Giants’ victory or a footnote in a loss. After all, this was Game 1 of […]
Seven years ago, Francisco Lindor walked to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning, the glare and tension of postseason baseball emanating all around – a reality throttled up by a line score showing the home team losing and running out of outs to make up the difference. […]
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 […]
Entering the contest in the top of the ninth on October 8, 2022, Guardians right-hander Emmanuel Clase had a straightforward mission: hold the opponent scoreless and give his offense an opening in which a single run would win the game (and in this case, the series). Clase did his part […]
On October 10, 1981, pinch-hitter George Vukovich stepped into the box to face Montreal’s Jeff Reardon. It was the start of the bottom of the 10th, the Expos and Phillies were knotted at five, and Philadelphia was trying to force a decisive Game 5. A pitch, a swing … and […]
By the simple laws of math, a postseason baseball game matters more than one from the regular season. After all, we’re talking 162 games for a team spread over half a year versus maybe 20 games across a single month. But it isn’t the math that gets our senses tingling […]