Archive for the 'Postseason' Category

In the  history of Major League Baseball there have been 245 postseason series completed. 27 of those series (see here, here and here) were won by the offense, with an exciting walk-off win. The remaining 218 (see here and here) were won with the pitcher on the mound. While the pitcher who has been in the middle of the celebration the most is obvious,  the runner-ups are not:

Limiting this list a little further does turn up a bit of interesting trivia. Here are the pitchers who have ended more than 1 post-season series with a strike-out:

Notice something a little strange about this list?  Mariano Rivera has finished off 12 post-season series, but only once with a strikeout. In fact (present and future) Hall of Fame closers Rivera, Gossage and Eckersley, who have combined to complete 21 series,  combined to end a series with a strikeout as many times as starter Orel Hershiser did it by himself.

My thanks to Sean for providing me with the list of post season games ended on a play that was not a PA.

When Jonathan Papelbon blew the game against the Angels a few days ago, he became just the second pitcher to blow a save in the post-season while recording 3 or fewer outs and allowing 6 or more baserunners:

  Cnt Player            Date          Series G Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB BR SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
+----+-----------------+-------------+------+-+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------+
    1 Jonathan Papelbon 2009-10-11    ALDS   3 BOS  LAA L  6-7   8-9  ,BL  1    4  3  3  2  6  0  0  32  20       2  2  8  6  1  0   1   0  0  0   0  0  0  1  0  0  27.00 

    2 Mike Timlin       2004-10-17    ALCS   4 BOS  NYY W  6-4   6-7  ,BS  1    3  1  1  3  6  0  0  37  18       1  1  8  5  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  1   9.00 

It's interesting that the other guy to do it was also pitching for Boston. Of course, in the case of the Timlin game, the Red Sox went on to score off Mariano Rivera in the 9th and win the game. This was the first game in a streak of 4 that Boston won to come back from down 3 games to win the ALCS.

No such luck for Boston this year.

After the jump is the full list of relief appearances in the post-season with 1 IP or less and 6 baserunners or more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Monday, October 12, 2009 Game Previews - Baseball-Reference.com

There are a lot of balls in the air behind the scenes at Baseball-Reference.com and one of the places they tend to hit the ground is at the interface between regular and postseason stats.

I've fixed a couple of issues with the regular and postseason stats. The game previews for postseason games now combine regular and postseason stats in (what I think) is a sensible way.

The batter vs. pitcher tools now include an option for including postseason stats as well. For example, here is Cliff Lee vs. the Rockies including postseason stats or just with regular season stats. Please let me know whatever issues you find.

When Vladimir Guerrero drove in two runs with his ninth inning single last night, he became the 10th player in postseason history to come to bat  with his team losing with 2 outs in the ninth and hand his team the lead:

  Car#  G# Date          Series G Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     1   1 1941-10-05    WS     4 Charlie Keller    NYY @BRO Hugh Casey        down   3-4  2B     t 9 12-   2  -        2 Double to RF; Henrich Scores/unER; DiMaggio Scores/unER 
     2   1 1947-10-03    WS     4 Cookie Lavagetto  BRO  NYY Bill Bevens       down   1-2  2B     b 9 12-   2  -        2 *ENDED GAME*:Double to RF; Gionfriddo Scores; Miksis Scores 
     3   1 1985-10-16    NLCS   6 Jack Clark        STL @LAD Tom Niedenfuer    down   4-5  HR     t 9 -23   2 0-0   1   3 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF); McGee Scores; Smith Scores 
     4   1 1985-10-20    WS     2 Terry Pendleton   STL @KCR Charlie Leibrand  down   1-2  2B     t 9 123   2 2-1   4   3 Double to LF (Line Drive to LF Line); Clark Scores; Landrum Scores; Cedeno Scores 
     5   1 1986-10-12    ALCS   5 Dave Henderson    BOS @CAL Donnie Moore      down   4-5  HR     t 9 1--   2 2-2   7   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF); Gedman Scores 
     6   1 1988-10-04    NLCS   1 Gary Carter       NYM @LAD Jay Howell        down   1-2  2B     t 9 12-   2 0-2   3   2 Double to CF (Line Drive); Strawberry Scores; McReynolds Scores 
     7   1 1988-10-15    WS     1 Kirk Gibson       LAD  OAK Dennis Eckersley  down   3-4  HR     b 9 -2-   2 3-2   7   2 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (Line Drive to Deep RF); Davis Scores 
     8   1 1992-10-14    NLCS   7 Francisco Cabrera ATL  PIT Stan Belinda      down   1-2  1B     b 9 123   2 2-1   4   2 *ENDED GAME*:Single to LF (Line Drive to Short LF); Justice Scores/unER; Bream Scores/unER; Berryhill to 2B 
     9   1 2005-10-17    NLCS   5 Albert Pujols     STL @HOU Brad Lidge        down   2-4  HR     t 9 12-   2 0-1   2   3 Home Run (Deep LF); Eckstein Scores; Edmonds Scores 
    10   1 2009-10-11    ALDS   3 Vladimir Guerrero LAA @BOS Jonathan Papelbo  down   5-6  1B     t 9 123   2 0-0   1   2 Single to CF (Line Drive to Short CF); Figgins Scores; Abreu Scores; Hunter to 2B 

It has also be done once in extra innings by Ivan Rodriguez in Game 3 of the 2003 NLDS.

  Car#  G# Date          Series G Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     1   1 2003-10-03    NLDS   3 Ivan Rodriguez    FLA  SFG Tim Worrell       down   2-3  1B     b11 123   2 1-2   5   2 *ENDED GAME*:Single to RF (Line Drive); Gonzalez Scores/unER; Pierre Scores/unER; Castillo to 2B 

Here are a few facts and figures related to this years LDSs:

• Adam Wainwright's game score of 78 was tied for the second highest in an LDS game among pitchers whose team lost the game. The only starter for a losing team with a better LDS game score was Barry Zito in game 3 of the 2001 ALDS vs. the Yankees. Here are the leaders.

  Cnt Player            Date          Series G Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str **GmSc** IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP   ERA
 ----+-----------------+-------------+------+- ---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--------+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+------ 
    1 Barry Zito        2001-10-13    ALDS   3 OAK  NYY L  0-1  GS-8  ,L   8    2  1  1  1  6  1 110  74     79         29 26  1  0   0   2  0  0   1  0  0  0  0  0   1.12 

    2 Adam Wainwright   2009-10-08    NLDS   2 STL @LAD L  2-3  GS-8       8    3  1  1  1  7  1 109  78     78         29 27  0  0   0   1  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0   1.12 
    3 Jerry Reuss       1981-10-07    NLDS   2 LAD @HOU L  0-1  GS-9       9    5  0  0  2  3  0             78         33 31  0  0   1   0  0  0   0  1  1  0  0  0   0.00 

    4 Kevin Tapani      1998-10-01    NLDS   2 CHC @ATL L  1-2  GS-9       9    5  1  1  3  6  1 111  70     76         35 31  0  0   0   0  1  0   0  1  0  0  1  0   1.00 

    5 Ramon Martinez    1996-10-02    NLDS   1 LAD  ATL L  1-2  GS-8       8    3  1  1  3  6  0 131  73     75         29 24  0  0   0   0  1  1   0  2  1  0  0  0   1.12 

• Alex Rodriguez's 9th inning  game tying  multiple run home run was the 13th such home run in post-season history. The team which tied the game is now 6-7 in those games. So much for momentum.

  Car#  G# Date          Series G Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
 -----+---+-------------+------+- -----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+------------------------- 
     1   1 1929-10-14    WS     5 Mule Haas         PHA  CHC Pat Malone        down   0-2  b 9 1--   1  -        2 Home Run (Deep RF); Bishop Scores 
     2   1 1953-10-05    WS     6 Carl Furillo      BRO @NYY Allie Reynolds    down   1-3  t 9 1--   1  -        2 Home Run (Deep RF); Snider Scores 
     3   1 1957-10-06    WS     4 Elston Howard     NYY @MLN Warren Spahn      down   1-4  t 9 12-   2  -        3 Home Run (Deep LF); Berra Scores; McDougald Scores 
     4   1 1964-10-12    WS     5 Tom Tresh         NYY  STL Bob Gibson        down   0-2  b 9 -2-   2  -        2 Home Run (Deep CF-RF); Mantle Scores/unER; Tresh Scores/unER 
     5   1 1975-10-14    WS     3 Dwight Evans      BOS @CIN Rawly Eastwick    down   3-5  t 9 1--   1 1-0   2   2 Home Run (Deep LF); Petrocelli Scores 
     6   1 1988-10-09    NLCS   4 Mike Scioscia     LAD @NYM Dwight Gooden     down   2-4  t 9 1--   0 0-0   1   2 Home Run (Line Drive to Deep RF); Shelby Scores 
     7   1 1992-10-11    ALCS   4 Roberto Alomar    TOR @OAK Dennis Eckersley  down   4-6  t 9 --3   0 2-2   6   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF); White Scores 
     8   1 1998-10-01    NLDS   2 Jim Leyritz       SDP @HOU Billy Wagner      down   2-4  t 9 1--   2 3-2   8   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF Line); Caminiti Scores 
     9   1 2000-10-05    NLDS   2 J.T. Snow         SFG  NYM Armando Benitez   down   1-4  b 9 12-   1 2-1   4   3 Home Run (RF Line); Bonds Scores; Kent Scores 
    10   1 2001-10-31    WS     4 Tino Martinez     NYY  ARI Byung-Hyun Kim    down   1-3  b 9 1--   2 0-0   1   2 Home Run (CF-RF); O'Neill Scores 
    11   1 2001-11-01    WS     5 Scott Brosius     NYY  ARI Byung-Hyun Kim    down   0-2  b 9 -2-   2 1-0   2   2 Home Run; Posada Scores   
    12   1 2003-10-07    NLCS   1 Sammy Sosa        CHC  FLA Ugueth Urbina     down   6-8  b 9 -2-   2 1-1   3   2 Home Run (Line Drive); Lofton Scores 
    13   1 2009-10-09    ALDS   2 Alex Rodriguez    NYY  MIN Joe Nathan        down   1-3  b 9 1--   0 3-1   5   2 Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF-RF); Teixeira Scores 

• While no player has ever hit for the cycle in post season history, Andre Ethier became the 3rd player to miss by just a single. Kaz Matsui had previously done it in 2007 NLDS as well as Lou Brock in the '68 World Series.

  Cnt Player            Date          Series G Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR **TB** RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
 ----+-----------------+-------------+------+- ---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+------+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--------- 
    1 Andre Ethier      2009-10-10    NLDS   3 LAD @STL W  5-1   5  5  2  3  1  1  1    9     2  0   0  1   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd RF        
    2 Kazuo Matsui      2007-10-04    NLDS   2 COL @PHI W 10-5   5  5  2  3  1  1  1    9     5  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st 2B        
    3 Lou Brock         1968-10-06    WS     4 STL @DET W 10-1   5  5  2  3  1  1  1    9     4  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  1  0 1st LF        

The possibility exists that the Phillies and Dodgers will meet in the NLCS for the second straight year. That got me wondering about the last time the same two teams met up in consecutive years in either championship series. Think about it for a minute and then click through for the answer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball-Reference Blog » All-Time Tiebreaker Playoff Games

Neil just went through and created a list of all of the tiebreaker games in MLB history.

I've been making some updates and improvements to the postseason stats on the site.

First off, the playoff stats on the player and postseason summary pages now match what we have in our pbp database. In the past, these were essentially two different sources with some crossover. It all now jibes with our pbp database. The main changes are that 1981 is not messed up for pitcher IP's as it was, the recent years have full stat lines, we now have wpa info for the 1914 WS. The fact the Braves played in Fenway messed things up and we got that fixed.

Second, I have added a best_of column to our database, so you can now search for just game 7's (or 5's) in the Game Finders and Postseason Event Finders.

I've re-run all of the postseason pages, so they should be ready to roll for next week.

With the playoffs quickly approaching, I got curious to see the list of players to lead off a post-season game with a home run. This was done using the Post-season Batting Event Finder.

  Car#  G# Date          Series G Batter            Tm   Opp Pitcher           Score       Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc.
+-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+
     1   1 1909-10-13    WS     5 Davy Jones        DET @PIT Babe Adams        tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -        1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Deep CF)
     2   1 1953-10-04    WS     5 Gene Woodling     NYY @BRO Johnny Podres     tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -        1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Deep LF)
     3   1 1954-09-30    WS     2 Al Smith          CLE @NYG Johnny Antonelli  tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -        1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Deep LF)
     4   1 1968-10-06    WS     4 Lou Brock         STL @DET Denny McLain      tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -        1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Deep CF-RF)
     5   1 1972-10-20    WS     5 Pete Rose         CIN @OAK Catfish Hunter    tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -        1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Deep CF-RF)
     6   1 1973-10-07    ALCS   2 Bert Campaneris   OAK @BAL Dave McNally      tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0  -        1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (LF-CF)
     7   1 1978-10-06    ALCS   3 George Brett      KCR @NYY Catfish Hunter    tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 1-1   3   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
     8   1 1986-10-21    WS     3 Lenny Dykstra     NYM @BOS Oil Can Boyd      tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 1-1   3   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF Line)
     9   1 1989-10-28    WS     4 Rickey Henderson  OAK @SFG Don Robinson      tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 2-0   3   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF)
    10   1 1991-10-12    NLCS   3 Orlando Merced    PIT @ATL John Smoltz       tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 0-0   1   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF)
    11   1 1995-10-04    NLDS   2 Marquis Grissom   ATL @COL Lance Painter     tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 0-0   1   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF-RF)
    12   1 2000-10-07    NLDS   3 Fernando Vina     STL @ATL Kevin Millwood    tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 0-1   2   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    13   1 2000-10-25    WS     4 Derek Jeter       NYY @NYM Bobby Jones       tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 0-0   1   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    14   1 2001-10-17    NLCS   2 Marcus Giles      ATL @ARI Miguel Batista    tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 0-0   1   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    15   1 2002-10-04    ALDS   3 Ray Durham        OAK @MIN Rick Reed         tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 1-1   3   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Inside-the-park Home Run to CF
    16   1 2004-10-21    NLCS   7 Craig Biggio      HOU @STL Jeff Suppan       tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 1-2   4   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    17   1 2004-10-27    WS     4 Johnny Damon      BOS @STL Jason Marquis     tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 2-1   4   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    18   1 2007-10-04    ALDS   1 Johnny Damon      NYY @CLE C.C. Sabathia     tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 3-1   5   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    19   1 2007-10-06    NLDS   3 Chris Young       ARI @CHC Rich Hill         tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 0-0   1   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    20   1 2007-10-08    ALDS   4 Grady Sizemore    CLE @NYY Chien-Ming Wang   tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 1-1   3   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run
    21   1 2008-10-05    NLDS   4 Jimmy Rollins     PHI @MIL Jeff Suppan       tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 3-2   6   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Line Drive to Deep RF)
    22   1 2008-10-15    NLCS   5 Jimmy Rollins     PHI @LAD Chad Billingsley  tied   0-0  t 1 ---   0 3-2   8   1 *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF-RF)

Lots and lots of good players populate this list, both the batters and pitchers.

I checked the record of the teams in these games. Here are the outcomes of the 22 games (from the point of view of the team hitting the leadoff HR) as you read down the column above.

LWLWWWLWWLWWWWWLWLWWWW

So that's a record of 16-6 (.727) in those 22 games. Not too surprising--with run-scoring at a premium in the playoffs, single runs have a bigger impact on the outcome.

A few other tidbits:

• There is one series--the 2007 ALDS--that appears twice here, with the Yankees' Johnny Damon and the Indians' Grady Sizemore both leading off different games in that series with homers. The Indians won both games, as well as the series.
• Just 1 out of these 22 games was Game 1 of its series. That's a little surprising, although so many Game 1's are pitched by aces that it's not too surprising.
• Finally, I would remiss if I didn't mention how much more common the leadoff HR has become, with more than half of these games coming since the 1990s. While there are more playoff games now thanks to the extra layers of playoffs (meaning more total playoff games per year and hence more chances for leadoff HR) the more recent era is over-represented, thanks to the increased overall prevelance of home runs in the game.

I suspect that this has been posted here before, but I was just looking at post-season hit streaks:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Manny Ramirez      2003-10-14  2004-10-27    17     73   11   24   4   0   3   12   12   10    0   0  .329  .400  .507  .907 BOS                                         
 Derek Jeter        1998-10-13  1999-10-27    17     70   16   26   3   2   1    7   13    8    3   1  .371  .436  .514  .950 NYY                                         
 Hank Bauer         1956-10-03  1958-10-04    17     76   10   24   2   1   6   16   13    1    1   0  .316  .325  .605  .930 NYY                                         

 Pat Borders        1991-10-12  1993-10-06    16     59    5   22   4   0   2    8    3    3    0   0  .373  .391  .542  .933 TOR                                         

 Marquis Grissom    1995-10-03  1996-10-02    15     69   11   26   3   1   3    5   10    2    6   2  .377  .403  .580  .983 ATL                                         
 Rickey Henderson   1989-10-04  1990-10-19    15     61   14   25   4   3   4   12    6   10   13   2  .410  .486  .770 1.256 OAK                                         

 David Ortiz        2004-10-26  2007-10-20    14     45   15   18   6   0   4    7    7   13    0   0  .400  .525  .800 1.325 BOS                                         
 Tim Raines         1981-10-19  1996-10-11    14     62   11   21   5   0   0    1    5    6    1   1  .339  .397  .419  .816 MON-CHW-NYY                                 
 Brooks Robinson    1970-10-03  1971-10-12    14     54   12   25   5   0   3   13    5    2    0   0  .463  .474  .722 1.196 BAL   

I recalled that Ramirez and Jeter shared the lead with fairly recent streaks. I had totally forgotten about Pat Borders' performance. He hit particularly well in the 1992 playoffs, with 16 hits in 42 AB, including 3 doubles, 2 homers, and 6 RBI.

Another interesting thing is the length of time for Tim Raines' streak, far longer than the others on this list. He went from a playoff appearance in 1981 with the Expos to a 1996 appearance with the Yankees. Not to mention the fact that the streak includes hitting in all 6 ALCS games in 1993 with the White Sox. Sheesh.