NEW YORK — Welcome to one of the strangest postseason series ever played. Can we just call it The Blowout Series?
Every day, you think this National League Championship Series is due for a breathtaking October classic. Then you look up at the scoreboard, and it’s 10-2 in the fourth inning.
We’re five games into this thing now, and the Dodgers and Mets are both flying across the country to play another game Sunday. So at least this NLCS has that going for it. It’s never felt close, but — at Dodgers 3 wins, Mets 2 wins — it can’t possibly be closer.
Just check out the scores of these five games so far. The expression, nail-biter, is guaranteed not to cross your mind.
Game 1 (Sunday): Dodgers 9, Mets 0
Game 2 (Monday): Mets 7, Dodgers 3
Game 3 (Wednesday): Dodgers 8, Mets 0
Game 4 (Thursday): Dodgers 10, Mets 2
Game 5 (Friday): Mets 12, Dodgers 6
If you look at those scores and ask — Is this as bonkers as I think it is? — you’re not alone. Does it make you feel better to know that even the men playing in this series aren’t sure what the heck is happening.
“Well, it’s different,” said the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo.
“It makes no sense,” said his ever-philosophical teammate, reliever Ryne Stanek. “But it’s the playoffs. You almost expect things to go sideways.”
“You know,” said his bullpen buddy, Phil Maton, “baseball is just gonna baseball.”
Oh, is it ever. At least it’s one of those times in life when you should be grateful that there’s a column known as the October Weird and Wild column. We exist to tell you just how off the rails this series is.
We also exist to tell you that games like Friday’s — when the winning team (the Mets) somehow struck out zero times in 44 plate appearances — are so hard to comprehend that afterward, Francisco Lindor made me show him the box score on my phone before he could be convinced that had really happened. More on those Mets Zero Heroes shortly.
But first, let’s help you make sense of …
The land of the blowouts
Shohei Ohtani homers to lead off Game 4. Another blowout was on. (Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)
Five games. Five blowouts. C’mon, man. How even?
“It’s not exactly how I saw this going,” Nimmo said — and with good reason.
How rare are series like this? I asked our friends from STATS Perform to help me dig into that question. No matter how we framed it, the answer was always: Incredibly rare.
Five straight games decided by four runs or more?
Those of us covering this series spent much of the day asking each other: Do you ever remember a series like this? We couldn’t — and for good reason. There have only been three other series in postseason history in which five games had a margin of four runs or more:
1965 World Series — Dodgers vs. Twins (6)
2010 ALCS — Yankees vs. Rangers (5)
2021 ALCS — Red Sox vs. Astros (5)
(Source: STATS Perform)
But even that list makes this seem more common than it really is, because that’s the total number of blowouts among all the games in those series. In truth, only one other time — in 121 seasons of postseason baseball — have the first five games of a series been decided by four runs or more. And that was in that 1965 World Series, where the first six games were all wipeouts.
But hold on. There’s more. What about …
Four games in a series decided by six runs or more?
Don’t forget that in this series, a four-run game almost feels close. Friday was the fourth game in which the winning margin was six runs or more. Only two other postseason series in history have featured that many games that were that lopsided.
2007 ALCS — Red Sox vs. Indians (5)
1986 ALCS — Red Sox vs. Angels (4)
(Source: STATS Perform)
But both of those series went seven games. This series is only five games old. So … stay tuned!
Five games decided by 35 runs in total?
Isn’t it flat-out nuts that the average margin of victory in the five games in this NLCS is seven runs? According to STATS, there has been only one other series, of five games or longer, where that happened. That was the five-game 1999 ALDS between the Red Sox and Indians, in which the total combined margin of victory was 37 runs — for an average of 7.4.
But if we look at only best-of-seven series, this NLCS is on pace to produce the most one-sided results ever. STATS found just four other best-of-seven series all time with a total margin of victory of more than 35 runs:
| RUNS | SERIES | TEAMS |
|---|---|---|
|
45 |
2007 ALCS |
Red Sox vs. Indians |
|
42 |
1960 WS |
Pirates vs. Yankees |
|
41 |
1968 WS |
Tigers vs. Cardinals |
|
40 |
1996 NLCS |
Cardinals vs. Braves |
So this series has some blowout-ish work to do to catch those matchups for total margin. But … over the first five games, this NLCS has all of them beat!
Combined margin after first 5 games*
| RUNS | SERIES | TEAMS |
|---|---|---|
|
35 |
2024 NLCS |
Dodgers vs. Mets |
|
29 |
1960 WS |
Pirates vs. Yankees |
|
26 |
2007 ALCS |
Red Sox vs. Indians |
|
26 |
1968 WS |
Tigers vs. Cardinals |
|
23 |
1996 NLCS |
Cardinals vs. Braves |
(*Best-of-seven series)
In other words, if the question is, Do you ever remember a series like this?, that answer is clearly: Nope!
But I actually don’t even think any of that is truly the Weird and Wild part. The Weird and Wild part is what preceded this series. You might recall the Mets just played two series before this one that were the exact opposite. Their games with the Brewers and Phillies were close, tense, draining and at times almost a little wacko.
So how can that same team go from a postseason featuring those kinds of games to a series featuring none of the above? Here, with all the answers, is Ryne Stanek.
“In the postseason, you always have to plan for the unexpected to happen,” said Stanek, who is pitching in his 12th postseason series. “You can’t really expect anything, because if you do, just the opposite is going to happen. It’s wild.”
So is that just a baseball thing, I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I mean, baseball is a cluster f— as a whole anyway, because it doesn’t make any sense 80 percent of the time.”
Well, thank God for that other 20 percent. Right?
“Right. If you talk to most of us,” Stanek said, “most of us are not right in the head because the game is just a mess.”
Ah, but at least it’s a beautiful mess. And the beauty of this series is … it’s not over yet. So it’s due for an epic October game any minute. And let’s just say hey, Sunday (Game 6) would be a good time!
But now here’s another important question that arose Friday …
Who says strikeouts are inevitable?
Francisco Lindor didn’t realize the Mets did not strike out once in Game 5. Perhaps he was too busy going 2-for-4, including this third-inning triple. (Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)
A baseball game with no strikeouts is like a basketball game with no 3-pointers, like a Broadway musical with no singing, like a movie theater with no popcorn. It can’t possibly be a thing in modern America, can it?
Well, normally, not a chance. But a wild (and very weird) thing happened to the Mets’ lineup on Friday. They made it through an entire game without a single K on the old scorecard. And how unbelievable was that? They weren’t even sure whether to believe it themselves.
Not a single Met I asked about it afterward had any clue it had just happened — except for the ones who had already been asked about it by somebody else. But my most entertaining exchange came with Lindor, a guy I always think of as being immersed in everything that happens on a baseball field. Um, not this time!
WEIRD AND WILD: “On your scale of rarities in baseball, where would you rank your team not striking out once today?”
LINDOR: “Who didn’t strike out?”
W&W: “Your team did not strike out once today.”
LINDOR: “I had no idea.”
W&W: “You made history, and you didn’t even know about it? Think about how hard that is in today’s game.”
LINDOR: “Are you sure we didn’t strike out?”
W&W: “Want me to show you the box score on my phone. Take a look at the strikeout column. 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.”
LINDOR: (Looks it up and down. Laughs. Shakes his head.) “I had no idea.”
So yes, something astonishing happened in Game 5 of this NLCS — and pretty much nobody even realized what they were witnessing. Let’s fill you in on just how Weird and Wild this thing was, because you may not see it again in your lifetime.
IN THE POSTSEASON — This was the 11th game in postseason history in which a team put up a big doughnut in the strikeout column. But don’t get the idea it’s even that common because …
Only two of the previous 10 happened in the last six decades:
Tim Salmon’s 2002 Angels did it in Game 2 of the World Series against the Giants.
Wilver D. Stargell’s 1974 Pirates did it in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Dodgers.
But how many times in postseason history had a team sent as many hitters to the plate as the Mets did Friday (44) and still didn’t punch out? As usual, never would be a great guess.
WHAT ABOUT THE REGULAR SEASON — There were 2,429 games played in the big leagues this year before we even got to the postseason. In only one of them did an offense finish a game with no strikeouts. And that team was … these Dodgers (except the hitters in this case). They did that on April 29, against Arizona. But now let’s keep going.
• The Mets hadn’t had a zero-strikeout game in any regular-season game in 14 years — since a May 25, 2010, game against the Phillies. That was over 2,000 games ago.
• The Mets have played nearly 10,000 regular-season games in their history. And only once, in all those games, did their lineup avoid striking out in a game with as many plate appearances as they got Friday. And that game was 60 years ago, in a visit to Wrigley Field on Aug. 28, 1964, when 49 Mets combined for zero K’s against Bob Buhl, Lew Burdette, Don Elston, John Flavin and Sterling Slaughter.
• And then there are those Dodgers pitchers, who had had exactly one no-strikeout game on the mound in their last 30 regular seasons. And that one came 20 years ago, on April 15, 2004, against the Padres.
• But to find the last time Dodgers pitchers struck out nobody in a game in which they pitched to 44 hitters or more, you’d have to go all the way back to Sept. 9, 1955, also at Wrigley, when Clem Labine and Russ Meyer whiffed none of the 45 Cubs they faced that day. Of course, they were busy giving up 17 hits that game. So that might explain it. I don’t know what explains this, unless it’s that full super moon hovering over Citi Field once the sun went down.
“I’ve never been part of a game like that,” said Jesse Winker. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a game like that. That’s amazing.”
Party of Four
Jack Flaherty in Game 1: Great. Jack Flaherty in Game 5: Not so great! (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
Before you click on the next awesome story on our site, don’t go! Here come four more Weird and Wild quick hits.
CRAZY EIGHTS — Baseball is so weird (but also so wild). So of course Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty coughed up eight runs in this game, five days after spinning off seven shutout innings against these Mets in Game 1 of this series.
Does he even want to know that he joined a really short list of pitchers in postseason history who gave up eight runs or more when their team had a chance to clinch a series? Let’s guess no on that. So while he looks away, we’re going to tell you all about it anyway.
Did you know that only three starting pitchers had ever done that in postseason history before Flaherty came along? Some good names here!
• Walter Johnson — 15 hits and 9 runs in Game 7 of the 1925 World Series
• Tom Glavine — 6 hits and 8 runs (in one inning) in Game 6 of the 1992 NLCS
• Charles Nagy — 6 hits and 8 runs in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS
And ohbytheway, two relief pitchers have also done it, amazingly enough: Jay Witasick (for the 2001 Diamondbacks) in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series and Steve Reed (for the 1999 Indians) the day before that Charles Nagy game, in the 1999 ALDS. Boy, sounds like another fun October week in Cleveland, huh?
MORE CRAZY EIGHTS — I started this column by reviewing all the blowouts in this series. But if I just do that, I’m actually slighting the Dodgers – because they got mixed up in two more lopsided games before they even got to this series, in their NLDS against San Diego.
So the Dodgers are now up to five games in this postseason that have been decided by eight runs or more. That’s half of the 10 games they’ve played. And that’s just ridiculous … but also historic.
Most games decided by 8+ runs in a postseason
|
5 |
2024 Dodgers |
|
4 |
2001 Yankees |
|
4 |
2007 Red Sox |
(Source: STATS Perform)
And I guess I’d better remind you … they’re not through playing in this postseason!
TURNING THOSE PAGES — So if those Dodgers pitchers had just given up, say, five runs Friday instead of 12, would we remember this as The Andy Pages Game? I think so!
The Dodgers center fielder entered this game with one hit in the postseason. He exited it with four hits — two of them titanic home runs that briefly helped make this game interesting.
So how can we not hit you with the complete list of multi-homer postseason games by Dodgers center fielders. One of these guys doesn’t seem like he fits! Guess which one.
Duke Snider, Game 6, 1952 World Series
Duke Snider, Game 5, 1955 World Series
Andy Pages, Friday
(Source: Baseball Reference/Stathead)
POLAR BEARS COME IN THREES — After Pete Alonso mashed a Flaherty hanger over the center-field fence in the first inning Friday, this game was never the same. It also led us down this rabbit hole:
Bet you didn’t know that in all the postseason elimination games the Mets have played in their history, they have hit only two three-run homers. But I have a hunch they’ll sound familiar.
Pete Alonso off Devin Williams, Game 3, 2024 NLDS
Pete Alonso off Jack Flaherty, Friday
End of list!
SMASHING PUMPKINS 🎃
PETE ALONSO THREE-RUN TANK pic.twitter.com/7emNSPhEub
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
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(Top photo of Jesse Winker and Will Smith: Al Bello / Getty Images)
