When it comes to October baseball, people are normally quick to point out which teams and players have been on
baseball’s biggest stage before.
The Phillies, Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia all have postseason experience and were expected to continue playing well in October. Alex Rodriguez, on the other hand, can’t seem to escape his postseason struggles (even though he’s actually hitting .301 in his playoff career).
Now we are two days into the playoffs and the most dominant pitching performances have been put in by players with no postseason experience.
Four pitchers have gotten starts in their postseason debuts so far, and they have combined for a 1.38 ERA in 26 innings. If you take Edinson Volquez out of the equation (he struggled against the Phillies, allowing four runs in just 1.2 innings) the other three starters making their playoff debuts have a perfect 0.00 ERA.
Roy Halladay started things off by throwing just the second no-hitter in postseason history on Wednesday. The Reds led the NL in runs scored during the regular season, so Halladay accomplished his feat against the NL’s most prolific offense.
Thursday, C.J. Wilson got his first playoff start against the Tampa Bay Rays and threw 6.1 shutout innings, striking out seven batters in the process. Wilson allowed just two hits and two walks against a solid Tampa Bay Rays lineup and left after throwing 104 pitches.
Tim Lincecum then finished off Thursday’s slate of games with a complete game shutout over the Altanta Braves. In what may have been the most dominant performance so far this postseason, Lincecum struck out 14 batters while allowing just two hits and a walk.
Heading into Friday’s slate of games, we will again get to see a pair of players make their postseason debuts. Both Matt Cain and Tommy Hanson (who are opposing each other) are coming off strong seasons but have never pitched in the postseason before.
As the year of the pitcher continues into the postseason, players are showing that it doesn’t take experience to shine on baseball’s biggest stage.
Used with permission of the author.
Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.
Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC