10/10/2014 Kansas City Royals 8, Baltimore Orioles 6

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD
ALCS Game 1

A 10th Inning donnybrook ensues; The Royals disrupt a tie game with two Home Runs in the top, Baltimore answers with one run. The math!

KC leads the series 1-0

My scoresheets, using my pitch-counting method! Read about it HERE, download the scoresheets for free HERE!

2011 League Championship Series - Best Pitchers*

* according to Bill James' Game Score

And the WINNER is...

RANDY WOLF!

SHOCKER…yes, I am quite surprised, but it’s true. By a little more than a nose, yes. I need to give him a break, I suppose…I have been heckling the Wolfman a little more than usual these days.

Before we start this round of jousting, let’s review Bill James' Game Score real quick.

In case you didn't know, "Game Score" is a neat and easy and FUN way to look at a starting pitcher's line in a Box Score and apply a basic formula on the stats to come up with a fundamental 'score' that "determines the strength of a pitcher in any particular baseball game.

To determine a starting pitcher's game score:

1.Start with 50 points.
2.Add 1 point for each out recorded, so 3 points for every complete inning pitched.
3.Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th.
4.Add 1 point for each strikeout.
5.Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed.
6.Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed.
7.Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed.
8.Subtract 1 point for each walk.

The maximum possible score in a 9-inning game with no baserunners allowed is 114, but of course this is possible only if the starting pitcher goes nine innings, strikes out every single batter he faces, and faces no more than 3 batters per inning. The exception to this gets a little hairy mathematically, but is never impossible...because this is baseball.

FYI, the highest game score for a 9-inning game in the history of baseball happened on May 6, 1998, when Kerry "Kid K" Wood famously struck out 20 Astros at Wrigley Field. Yowsah, that Game Score was 105.

So I thought it would be a "hoot" to compile Game Score for all SP during the postseason; I started this at the close of the League Division Series; you can review the LDS results at this post. Now that the League Championship Series is over and we’re going to the WORLD SERIES...here are the LCS results, and the top 5 winners:

Randy Wolf (62) 10/13/11 MIL @ STL NLCS G4
Doug Fister (59) 10/11/11 TEX @ DET ALCS G3
Rick Porcello (54) 10/12/11 TEX @ DET ALCS G4
Max Scherzer (53) 10/10/11 DET @ TEX ALCS G2 - TIE
Matt Harrison (53) 10/12/11 TEX @ DET ALCS G4 - TIE

Quite a change, overall in the top 5 scores themselves, compared to the LDS top 5 (range was 84-72 in the LDS top 5). Right off the top of my head, I would imagine that one contributing factor in the difference in overall scores was more or less attributable to the ‘clinch pitching change’ tactic employed by each of the 4 teams playing in the series, particularly in those crucial Game 6 situations. In the LDS, 38 starting pitchers worked an average of 5.71 innings (or, more accurately in baseball math: 5.2 innings). In the LCS, 24 starting pitchers worked an average of 4.8 innings (again, 4.2 innings in baseball math). So this off-the-cuff theory could have some weight.

Another wacky reality: Randy Wolf had the lowest score among the 38 SP in the LDS. Uh-huh.

Other interesting notes I made, regarding the top 5:
Only 1 NL pitcher appeared in the top 5 (Wolf, at number 1)
The top 3 pitchers earned their scores at home (Wolf, Fister, Porcello)
3 of the top 5 (the bottom 3, in fact) earned “No Decisions” as SP
Of those 3, both teams were the Detroit Tigers and both times the Tigers lost the game
Only 1 SP in the top 5 saw his team advance to the World Series (Harrison)
No Cardinals pitchers made the top 5
Two of the top 5 scores were from SP in the same game (10/12/11 TEX @ DET ALCS G4)

In general (all 24 pitchers with starts in the LCS):
Lowest score – Max Scherzer (20) 10/15/11 DET @ TEX ALCS G6
Lowest score, 4 innings minimum – Jaime Garcia (26) 10/9/11 STL @ MIL NLCS G1
Lowest score by a winning pitcher – Zack Greinke (36) 10/9/11 STL @ MIL NLCS G1
Average Game Score by SP in the 2011 LDS: 41.41

I will now officially revoke my honorary Randy “ERA” Wolf nickname. Until next year.

For now…#HappyFlight

You can review my work on the spreadsheet on Google Docs.

I will continue to tally the Game Score for the World Series, and post the results when that FINAL phase of the postseason is over. Then we can look at a Postseason Sweepstakes review…who will win it all??

If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter
(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!

10/15/11 Detroit Tigers 5, Texas Rangers 15

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, TX
ALCS Game 6

Nelson Cruz makes Postseason History: 6 HR, 13 RBI, an MLB single Postseason Series record!

This was a “must-win” game for the Tigers, who had battled admirably against the favored Rangers during this series…but the Tigers didn’t show up today.



You can skip ahead to my scoresheets and see that pretty much an entire pencil was used on the Rangers’ page…Detroit’s pitching was asleep at the wheel, while their offense was substantial in a vacuum, it was not significant and the Rangers literally ran away with this game to win the AL pennant for the second consecutive year.

The running away occurred in the 9 run, 6 hit 3rd inning…Leyland used 4 pitchers who faced 14 batters. Michael Young became the 1st LCS player ever with 2 XBH in the same inning.

The final score of 15-5 is shocking enough, when you consider that the Rangers left 11 on base (compared to the Tigers leaving only 3) that provides pretty much all the analysis one needs to see where things fell apart.

Nearly 3 hours into the game (2:59 to be more precise), Joe Buck proclaims “it looks like the X Factor will be on tomorrow night!”

Tom Hallion was the home plate umpire this evening…incidentally, Tom resides in Louisville and was the subject of a featured article in the Courier-Journal on the eve of the 2008 World Series, just a week or so before gaining some notoriety on a questionable call against the Phillies in game 3 (which the Phils won anyway). Hallion long ago replaced Jim Joyce as my personal favorite “called strike three,” an athletic maneuver wherein he makes a near-complete 180 with his upper body, lurches his arms (fists clenching) violently into the air and utters a shriek from down under. Always great to see him behind the plate.

Here’s a video montage tribute to "Hallionetics" from the 2009 Postseason; he’s even more impressive 2 years later!!

Rangers win series 4-2



HEY, I want your feedback!
If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter
(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!

10/8/83 Baltimore Orioles 3, Chicago White Sox 0

1983 ALCS Game 4
Comiskey Park, Chicago, IL

Ah, the 83 White Sox…on the threshold of their first potential AL pennant since 1919 and first subsequent World Series appearance since 1917, the beloved south-siders in their enormously beautiful multi-colored team gear (led by Tony LaRussa) were the hottest thing since boiling cannelloni. Even entering the series behind the Orioles (2-1), there was more than a chance of the unbelievable happening…and more than a chance for things to, literally, ‘go south.’

Two skilled starting pitchers pitched several effective innings that ended in a nail-biting 10th inning decision fired off by a lesser-known utility player.

BAL 3 9 0
CWS 0 10 0

Britt Burns (CWS) pitched 9.1 remarkable innings; Storm Davis (BAL) lasted 6. As Davis gave up a lead-off single to Greg Walker in the 7th, we was yanked in favor of Tippy Martinez, who nearly gave up the game but was rescued by a classic base-running blunder by the White Sox. With Vance Law at 2nd and Jerry Dybzinski at 1st, Julio Cruz singles sharply to left-center field. Law doesn’t pick up the call and holds up at 3rd – Dybzinski ‘runs into an out’ and in a 7-5-4-2 relay, makes it back to 2nd while Law is tagged out at home – a wasted opportunity. Not to be topped by atypical game blunders, Martinez attempts to pick-off Cruz during Rudy Law’s AB but there’s nobody covering at 1st! The official call is an ‘automatic balk,’ the runners get a base but two pitches later, Rudy flies out to LF Gary Roenicke and this corny inning is over…and the game is still scoreless.

Burns is nearly wiped out into extra innings, and shows it with a solo HR by Tito Landrum, acquired from St. Louis by the Orioles that very same year, and sporting a single HR during the regular season (and 26 games played for the Os). 2 more runs and 3 CWS pitchers later, the Orioles leave their 10th with a 3-0 lead and Martinez effectively holds of the White Sox to get the pennant and a trip to the World Series. The Orioles ended up winning it, and Landrum ended up returning to the Cardinals the following year.

I scored this came on 12/24/09.