Kern: MLB postseason oddities in 2015

From SABR member Doug Kern at ESPN.com on November 3, 2015:

When Kansas City got its first major league team in 1955, it waited 30 years for a World Series title (and it was a different team that got it). After another 30 years, a second banner is set to go up at Kauffman Stadium. So we begin this roundup of our favorite postseason oddities with “The K.”

Jake Arrieta started by dominating the Pirates, joining Orval Overall as the only Cubs pitchers to throw a postseason shutout with double-digit strikeouts. Overall’s game won the Cubs their last title; it was the clinching Game 5 of the 1908 World Series against Detroit.

The Cubs, however, then got shut out in National League Division Series Game 1, their second time starting a postseason series with a zero (1918) and their first time losing by shutout immediately after winning by shutout. Jon Lester became the first Cubs pitcher to lose a postseason game in which he had at least nine strikeouts since Jack Pfiester in 1906.

Jacob deGrom and Clayton Kershaw combined for a dazzling 24 strikeouts in their NLDS opener. It was the second game in postseason history in which two pitchers reached double digits; the other duo was Mort Cooper and Denny Galehouse in the all-St. Louis series of 1944.

Read the full article here: http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/111146/mlb-postseason-oddities-title-goes-to-the-k



Originally published: November 3, 2015. Last Updated: November 3, 2015.