Video: NLCS Gm4: Colon puts out fire, earns win in clincher. In addition, the more homer-reliant teams were better to begin with, plating about a quarter run more per game during the regular season than the less homer-reliant teams. The victory comes 14 years and 12 days after his last postseason victory (Game 1 of the 2001 AL Division Series), marking the longest gap all-time between postseason victories, according to Elias Sports Bureau. With a Padres runner on second and the Dodgers clinging to a 4-3 lead, Tatis represented the go-ahead run. The Shift May Have Cost the Braves a Pennant. Is the World Series Now the Dodgers’ to Lose? The record for most career home runs hit in the postseason is 29 by Manny Ramirez (Dominican Republic) playing for the Cleveland Indians (USA), Boston Red Sox (USA) and Los Angeles Dodgers (USA) from 1995 to 2009. On an intellectual, logical level, I know it’s not impossible that the Rays or Yankees could have scored some other way. Big Papi crushed 30-plus homers in 10 different seasons, with 41 or more in every year from 2004-06 (career-high 54 in ‘06). The second episode of our new music show explores the hidden history behind that big chorus and goofy video. In other words, teams from the two groups suffered essentially the same postseason penalty. Or, to put it another way, that it will feature two expansion franchises. The pitchers were too talented for the hitters to hope for anything but one decisive swing (a formula for upsets). • Murphy now has seven home runs overall this postseason, leaving him one shy of the all-time mark. The two others were the Padres' Eric Show (1984 NLCS Game 5) and the Yankees' Harry Harper (1921 World Series Game 6). The dessert kingdom, television’s delectable oasis, must be saved. In doing so, they became just the sixth team to sweep a best-of-seven series without ever trailing, joining the 2012 Tigers, '04 Red Sox, 1989 Athletics, '66 Orioles and '63 Dodgers. Bernie Williams is second with 22, and Derek Jeter is third with 20.

The previous record belonged to Milt Wilcox, who went exactly 14 years between postseason wins from 1970-84.

This postseason is no exception: After setting a record regular-season strikeout rate for a 15th consecutive season, hitters have seen their strikeout rates soar even higher in the playoffs. (More on that in a moment.) The Guillén number peaked at 45.2 percent in 2019, then dropped to 43.7 percent in 2020 as a slightly less aerodynamic baseball moderately reduced home-run rates. (As base runners have grown scarcer, the solo homer has become by far the most common kind.) One night after rewriting the franchise record books, Murphy set his sights on the Major League record books, all while helping the Mets clinch their first NL pennant in 15 years. In the six seasons of the juiced ball era, the gap has been even bigger (46.5 percent versus 41.4 percent). Blake Snell and Brandon Lowe Help the Rays Even the World Series. In a sense, it’s strange that this stat has been ubiquitous. Thus, the percentage of runs scored on homers spikes: In the wild card era, the cumulative postseason Guillén number (40.5 percent) has eclipsed the cumulative regular-season Guillén number (36.6 percent) by a little less than four percentage points.

Here's a look at some of the top facts and figures to come out of New York's Game 4 victory. At various points in this postseason, the prospect of scoring a run without hitting a homer has seemed incredibly remote. • Murphy was far from the Mets' only source of offense in Game 4, as first baseman Lucas Duda tied a franchise record with five RBIs in a postseason game. And while hitting more homers has always been beneficial to teams, the low-contact, homer-heavy brand of baseball being played today is especially likely to lead to uneven round-tripper totals and games that go the slugging side’s way. In addition, Murphy is the only player all-time to record at least one extra-base hit and one RBI in six straight postseason games. In 2015, the first season of the ongoing juiced ball era, the percentage of runs scored on homers—what Sheehan dubbed the “Guillén number” when he used it to illustrate that Ozzie Guillén’s 2005 White Sox weren’t the small-ball squad some media members had made them out to be—reached 40 percent.

In the top of the seventh inning of NLDS Game 2, Bellinger prevented a deep drive from flying over the outfield fence to the left of the 407-foot sign at Globe Field, squelching a San Diego threat. The ‘Great British Baking Show’ Is Broken. On the surface, it almost seems self-evident: Of course teams that have hit more homers have fared well. A century ago, teams that outhomered their opponents won almost 70 percent of the time. The second reason why the stat is inescapable is that home runs really do take on an outsized importance in October. Will It Cost Someone a World Series? 18 plate appearances or … Dating back to 1920, teams in the regular season have amassed a combined .730 winning percentage when they’ve outhomered their opponents. ?Cody Bellinger ROBS Tatis of a 2-run HR!!

To re-check the relationship between regular-season home-run reliance and postseason scoring, I sorted all of the pre-2020 playoff teams from the wild card era by the percentage of regular-season runs they scored on home runs, then split them into two groups: the less homer-reliant half and the more homer-reliant half. The Mets finished off their National League Championship Series sweep of the Cubs on Thursday night, behind yet another stellar performance from history-making second baseman Daniel Murphy in an 8-3 Game 4 victory. So it’s not just that teams are winning more often when they outhomer their opponents; it’s also that it’s much more common for one team to outhomer another. Notice, too, that the red line in the graph above (postseason Guillén number) has historically hovered above the blue line (regular-season Guillén number). • Murphy named NLCS Most Valuable Player • Murphy also joins Lou Gehrig as the only players to score and drive in at least one run in seven consecutive postseason games. Tweet from @MLB: Daniel Murphy. Just how different is that from postseasons past? Babe Ruth: 33: 5. The Padres hit 2 HR tonight, while the Dodgers hit 1 -- and the Dodgers won.This is the 1st time this postseason a team has out-homered its opponent and *lost*.Teams are now 19-1 in games where they out-homer their opponent this postseason. Why has hitting more homers become a surer sign of success? In the 2020 regular season, more than three-quarters of games ended with one team outhomering the other, and almost 60 percent of games ended with a team that hit more homers triumphant. Through Wednesday’s games, postseason teams were 26-2 when they outhomered their opponent; beyond the Bellinger game, the only deviation from the trend was ALCS Game 3, in which the Astros outhomered the Rays 2-0 but lost 5-2.

Of the previous seven to record an LCS sweep, only one -- the '95 Braves -- went on to win the World Series. If we focus on 2015-20, those figures rise to .771 and .825, respectively. Now that the ball is flying and batters are angling up, lopsided tallies are less unusual, as the Dodgers demonstrated when they launched five homers to Atlanta’s one in NLCS Game 3. The record for most home runs in a single postseason is eight, held by Barry Bonds (2002), Beltran ('04) and Nelson Cruz ('11).

In the moment, though, that ending seemed inevitable.

Despite the seemingly unsurprising and borderline axiomatic takeaway that hitting homers is, all else being equal, better than not hitting homers, the stat keeps circulating for three reasons. Dave Stewart Talks Reggie Jackson, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, and How Pitching Has Changed Since He Played, If This World Series Becomes a Battle of the Bullpens, the Dodgers May Be Out of Luck, The Rays Have Found Their Winning Formula in the World Series. They lost the 2006 NLCS to the Cardinals in seven games. All-time and Single-Season World Series Batting Leaders.

What Should They Do at No. A few other records are kept on separate pages, they are listed below. With the Astros' win, teams are now 26-2 in games where they out-homer their opponent this postseason.

Yogi Berra: 39: 3. Video: NLCS Gm4: Duda tallies five RBIs as Mets clinch. Teams from the group that was more reliant on the long ball collectively scored 16.8 percent fewer runs per game in the postseason than they did during the regular season. The home-run rate has risen too, possibly because of another change in the ball’s behavior.