In yesterday’s article, I talked about some of the outliers and oddities we had already seen through three games of the World Series. Lance McCullers Jr. hadn’t allowed more than three homers in a MLB appearance and gave up five. The Astros blew a 5-0 lead in Game 1, something that only five other teams had done in 225 previous World Series games. All of that pales in comparison to a World Series no-hitter, but we got one last night.
Just one day after the Phillies played Home Run Derby, Cristian Javier, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly combined to strike out 14 Phillies en route to the second no-hitter in World Series history and the first combined no-hitter. You’ve read the words I’ve written about the high variance level of the MLB Playoffs, but this took it to another level. There was nothing really fluky about it either, as the balls in play from the Phillies had an expected batting average of .081, so they made very little quality contact.
Oh, and ironically, for the third time in four games, the Astros had a 5-0 lead, which actually wound up being the final score. Houston had seven hard-hit balls off of Aaron Nola and got the big blow off of Jose Alvarado with a bases-clearing double. Alvarado wasn’t sharp with the extended layoff, which is something worth following as the series moves forward.
Now, on to Game 5, where the winner will be one game away from immortality.