Sunday, October 28, 2012

2.59 AND 13.6%

Max...MAX!! Break their broom, buddy!!
Quickest of quick hits as we move to Game Four of the World Series...

There have been 22 fourth games where a team held a 3-0 lead going into play. In 19 of those games, the team with the 3-0 lead completed the sweep.

That means that only three teams, or 13.6%, have managed to win Game Four while trailing 0-3.

None of those teams managed to win a Game Five.

As for Game Four run scoring by teams down 0-3: it's not a pretty picture. Half of these teams scored two runs or less; overall, teams scored 57 runs in these 22 games, or 2.59 runs/game.

The three teams that won Game Four while down 0-3: the 1910 Cubs (won 4-3), the 1937 New York Giants (won 7-3), and the 1970 Reds (won 6-5).

So if the Tigers could win tonight's game and then win again in Game Five, they would do something that's never happened in the history of the World Series. (Of course, the Boston Red Sox did manage to come all the way back from an 0-3 deficit in the 2004 ALCS, and as even your sainted and buried-before-the-fact great grandma knows, they are the only baseball team to have ever done it.)