Klugh: Every playoff home run tells a story, especially the first one
From Justin Klugh at FanGraphs on October 1, 2019:
Getting dropped into a single elimination Wild Card game is like kicking off the postseason with Game Seven of the World Series. Suddenly, everything is on the line. The water is boiling. Alarms are going off. Stephen Strasburg is pitching in relief. There’s always two strikes. The crowd is either deathly silent or ripping off their jerseys.
Often, these games are won with abrupt offense, and in 2019, that means home runs. The league just hit a(nother) record-breaking number of them during the regular season, so last night, the Brewers and Nationals knew it was their jobs to swat as many balls out of the ballpark as they could before time ran out.
Yasmani Grandal hit one on the first pitch he saw, gifting Milwaukee an early lead by punching an inside fastball into the Nationals’ bullpen and celebrating with a seismic slap of his first base coach’s hand.
Read the full article here: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/every-playoff-home-run-tells-a-story-especially-the-first-one/
Originally published: October 2, 2019. Last Updated: October 2, 2019.