Schadenfreude 373 (A Continuing Series)

Yankees - 000 000 000 - 0  1  0
Rays    - 001 000 00x - 1  5  0

This is the 14th time in postseason history a team has allowed 0 hits in the first seven innings of a game.
First time since the Astros (2022 WS G4) threw a combined (four pitchers) no-hitter.

Longest individual no-hit bids in postseason history:
2010 NLDS G1 Roy Halladay:   No-hitter
1956 WS   G5 Don Larsen:     Perfect game
1947 WS   G4 Bill Bevens:    8.2 IP
2026 ALDS G1 Drew Rasmussen: 7.2 IP
2019 NLCS G1 Anibal Sánchez: 7.2 IP 
1967 WS   G2 Jim Lonborg:    7.2 IP
1942 WS   G1 Red Ruffing:    7.2 IP

Drew Rasmussen faced only two Yankees with a runner on base. He struck each of them out to end the inning.

Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero has the ball in his glove (0:12 in this video).

Yankees' Austin Wells breaks up Drew Rasmussen's no-hit bid in eighth — and gets thrown out at third in stunner
Mark W. Sanchez, Post

Luis Rojas raised his arms straight up to form the universal sign for "stop." Stop signs are irrelevant, though, if they are not seen in time. 

Austin Wells only picked up his third base coach when he had rounded second base and  . . . turned the best moment of the Yankees' night into the worst within seconds. 

Wells broke up Drew Rasmussen's no-hitter with two outs in the eighth, only to get thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple . . . which helped lead to a 1-0 loss to the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS at Tropicana Field. . . .

Entering the at-bat, Rasmussen had retired 23 Yankees and only let two reach base on walks. He had struck out 10. He was about as dominant as a pitcher can be. A one-run deficit, on the strength of a Jonathan Aranda home run, felt insurmountable. 

And then Wells stepped up and provided life, energy and joy — for all of about 10 seconds. 

The Yankees catcher blistered a rare Rasmussen miss, a sinker that cut across the middle of the plate . . . down the right field line . . . fair by maybe a foot. The ball pinballed from a wall in foul territory to another facing of the wall in fair territory. . . .

The owner of one of the most potent cannons in the majors, [Victor] Mesa threw a strike to cutoff man Taylor Walls, who did not even have to rush a throw to third: He threw, but did not fire, to third baseman Junior Caminero, who had plenty of time to tag Wells. . . . 

Wells remained on the dirt for a few seconds, and it would have been understandable if he dug a hole and remained there for the rest of a game in which the Yankees would not record a second hit.

Oh, there's third base, that little white square on the left.

Yankees get one-hit in brutal Game 1 ALDS loss to Rays
Greg Joyce, Post

Wells . . . was thrown out easily trying to stretch a double into a triple, delivering one more gut punch on the way to a 1-0 loss to the Rays and a 1-0 deficit in the best-of-five series . . .

"We didn't really have much going on . . ." Wells said in a quiet visiting clubhouse. "[I] thought I had a good chance to get there. Can't hang your head too much." . . .

With the Yankees four outs away from becoming the fourth team in postseason history to be no-hit, Wells [doubled to right and] was just over halfway to second base when third base coach Luis Rojas threw up a stop sign. . . . The slow-footed catcher was thrown out easily at third base . . .

"Obviously not a good decision there," manager Aaron Boone said. . . .

The play sent the packed house . . . into a frenzy, as Rasmussen continued his dominance of the Yankees with a whale of a game: eight shutout innings, 10 strikeouts and two walks. . . .

[Wells:] "You have to take risks, but in that situation, obviously the risk was wrong."

Giancarlo Stanton strikes out in first Yankees at-bat in over five months — why Aaron Boone 'liked what I saw'
Greg Joyce, Post

[Giancarlo Stanton's] first at-bat in five-plus months . . . was one of the few things [Aaron Boone] liked in the Yankees' 1-0 loss to the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday night at Tropicana Field.

With the Yankees trailing by a run in the top of the ninth, and Rays righty closer Bryan Baker entering from the bullpen, Boone sent Stanton up to pinch hit . . . to lead off the frame.

Stanton, who last took an at-bat April 24 because of three separate calf strains, ended up striking out on five pitches. The veteran slugger fouled off the first pitch, took two balls and a strike, then foul-tipped a 96 mph fastball on the inner third into the catcher's mitt for Strike 3. . . .

"[I] felt the threat of Giancarlo — I thought he had a really good at-bat. . . . I liked what I saw. He took the right at-bat." . . .

Drew Rasmussen was superlative in every single way for Rays — and he made it look easy
Mike Vaccaro

It's supposed to be harder than this. It's certainly supposed to look harder than this. . . .

Rasmussen, he looked like he had a beer and a hot dog on the mound with him, looked like he was retreating to a chaise lounge while his teammates were whipping the ball around the infield, out after out, inning after inning, for 7.2 innings, all while clinging to the skinniest lead that the law allows: 1-0. . . .

He was — pick your adjective — masterful. Dominant. Splendid. Magnificent. Mostly, he looked completely unfazed by the moment. . . . One Yankee after another he stared down with cold eyes and cold-blooded precision. . . .

[In the eighth, Rasmussen missed his spot] and Austin Wells shot it down the right-field line, and Wells apparently was so stunned that Rasmussen had tossed it down the pipe that as he rounded second base he believed he was running on Rickey Henderson's legs. He was not. . . .

Drew Rasmussen's masterclass places all pressure on the Yankees going forward
Joel Sherman, Post

Good luck to the Yankees getting to three wins first in a series in which Rasmussen can start twice.

Think about the pressure on Cam Schlittler and the rest of the team for Monday night in Game 2 . . . Think about the stress now to win every non-Rasmussen start after he held the Yankees hitless for seven innings en route to eight shutout innings in a 1-0 victory in this ALDS opener. . . .

Rays manager Kevin Cash is notorious for removing his then-ace Blake Snell while he was working on an overwhelming two-hit shutout in the sixth inning of 2020 World Series Game 6 . . . Tampa Bay blew that game, and the Dodgers clinched a title.

There was no chance of Cash repeating that Saturday with Rasmussen . . . On Sept. 22, in the nightcap of a doubleheader, Rasmussen no-hit the Yankees for six innings as the Rays clinched the AL East title. . . .

[He held] the Yankees hitless until Austin Wells doubled with two down in the eighth. Wells inexplicably tried to take third. . . . [W]ith two outs, in the game of risk vs. reward, this was unacceptable to the highest level. And so in the span of about 10 seconds, Wells navigated from being the Yankees whole offense to their goat when he was easily thrown out. . . .

If Game 4 is necessary, Rasmussen can start on full rest or be held for a potential Game 5. . . .

You see how this intensifies what the Yankees must do in the other games against a Rays team that pitches well beyond Rasmussen, plays clean in the field and is now 56-26 at home. . . .

[O]ne run beat the Yankees.  . . . Including Rays closer Bryan Baker's 1-2-3 ninth, the Yankees were 0-for-19 with 12 strikeouts with two strikes . . .

Yankees delivered a bitter reminder that these Rays aren't the Red Sox
Jon Heyman, Post

Talk was circulating among some overexcited guessers that New York's marquee baseball franchise might duplicate the Knicks' magical run after they swept the rival Red Sox two straight games in The Bronx.

But down here, before a hostile sellout crowd and a better team than Boston with a much better plan, the Yankees provided zero magic and registered only one hit against known Yankee killer Drew Rasmussen. . . .

You could almost feel the wind from all their swings and misses over Rasmussen's eight pristine innings inside this depressing brutalist edifice . . . There were 10 pinstriped strikeouts and 23 swings and misses as Rasmussen remains a career mystery to them. . . .

[In the eighth,] non-speedster Austin Wells . . . was easily thrown out at third trying to stretch a double with two outs in the eighth. We hadn't seen much baserunning to that point, but it turns out that was worse than the hitting, which was virtually nonexistent. . . .

Anyway, now comes the first October crisis. The Yankees will need to beat the Rays three out of four to get past this division series now. That will not be easy. . . .

The Rays . . . do everything right and well. They squeeze the best out of their ability . . .

The Yankees need to be better to take this series. . . . Maybe start with a couple of hits, and throw in better decisions, too.

 

 

 

Some Depressing ALWC Tidbits

The Red Sox had a Win Expectancy Percentage over 50% for only two plate appearances in the two games. Both fleeting moments came early (or early-ish) in Game 2.

In the top of the third, after Nate Eaton doubled (0-0, 1 out), it was 52%.
When Jahmai Jones struck out looking, it dropped to 48%.

In the top of the fourth, after Willson Contreras walked (0-0 0 out), it was 54%.
Wilyer Abreu struck out (50%). Ceddanne Rafaela flied to center (47%).

Sarah Langs

26 scoreless innings vs the Red Sox dating to last year was the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the postseason by the Yankees vs a single opponent
h/t @EliasSports

The Yankees have won consecutive games by 7+ runs, tied with 1961, 1960 and 1937 for the longest single-postseason streak in franchise history
Only one team has won 3 straight by 7+ in a single postseason: 2007 Red Sox

+16 is tied with 1951 WS G4-5 for the second-highest run differential in a 2-game span in Yankees postseason history, behind only: 1960 WS G2-3: +23

Yankees pitchers opened this postseason with 14 consecutive scoreless innings
That’s the second-longest scoreless streak by NYY pitching to start a postseason, behind 20 IP in 1921
This is their 61st postseason appearance
h/t @EliasSports

This is the first time the Yankees have scored 9+ runs in consecutive postseason games since doing so in 3 straight 2020 ALWCS G1-2 and ALDS G1, which tied a franchise-record such streak (also done in 1998)

Fastest-tracked OF assists in postseason under Statcast (2015):
2016 ALDS G1 Jackie Bradley Jr.: 105.1 mph
2023 ALDS G1 Matt Wallner: 99.2 mph 
2026 ALWCS G2 Nate Eaton: 99.1 mph [Eaton threw out Ben Rice at the plate]

Most Common Postseason Matchups, MLB History
Yankees-Dodgers: 12 series (NYY leads, 8-4)
Yankees-Red Sox: 7 (NYY, 4-3)
Yankees-Cleveland: 7 (NYY, 5-2)
Yankees-Giants: 7 (NYY, 5-2)

OptaSTATS

The Yankees are the first team in MLB history to score at least 90% of the runs in a postseason series (min. 20 total runs).

The whitesox are the first team in MLB history to hold the lead at the end of every single inning of a multi-game postseason series.

The Padres are the first team in MLB history to hold the highest-scoring team in the majors during the regular season to just one run (or none) in a multi-game postseason series.
The previous low for runs scored by the regular-season scoring leader in a multi-game postseason series was 3 (Orioles held the White Sox to 3 runs in the 1983 ALCS).

Lowest slugging percentage in a multi-game postseason series, MLB history:
.145 - 2026 Cubs (NLWC)
.153 - 2020 Twins (ALWC)
.154 - 2022 Rays (ALWC)
.174 - 1998 Rangers (ALDS)
.179 - 2019 Cardinals (NLCS)

Katie Sharp @SharpStats17

Spencer Jones #FunFact
Jones is the first player in the play-by-play era (since 1910) to strike out twice and steal a base in an inning in any game (postseason or regular season).

Jones also scored in that inning, making his feat perhaps even harder to match, though if your team is batting around and you were on base, you probably scored a run. (Whatever. If Someone Named Spencer Jones is ever known for anything, it will be only this.)

Going back to Langs's list, how is it possible that the second-most common postseason matchup in all of MLB history are two teams from the same goddamn division? That is not how things should be. This is what happens when people who hate baseball are allowed to run baseball . . . into the ground.

After my YED 2026 hangover dissipates, I'll be doing game stories for the World Series.

ALWC 2: Yankees 9, Red Sox 2

Red Sox - 000 001 100 - 2  4  1 
Yankees - 000 116 10x - 9 14  0 

What a shit show.

The Red Sox trailed by one run after Willson Contreras bopped a home run to right-center in the top of the sixth. It was the first time in these two ALWC games that a Boston runner's foot had touched third base – and home plate. It snapped both the longest scoreless streak to start a postseason series in franchise history (14.2 innings) and a streak of 26.2 postseason innings in which the Red Sox had not scored (which included the final 12 innings of last year's ALWC series).

So things were looking up . . . sort of. A glimmer of hope.

Then Boston manager Chad Tracy decided – for the most important four innings of the entire season, when it was imperative to keep the Yankees from scoring any more runs – to hand the ball to the biggest question mark in the bullpen – Garrett Crochet – a guy who had not pitched in an actual game in over five months. On the plus side, he'd be pitching on 157 days of rest.

And to no one's real surprise, everything unraveled. Crochet struck out Spencer Jones, but the ball got away from catcher Adley Rutschman, rolling off to the third base side of foul territory. His throw was just a little too late – the original call was out, but was overturned when the Yankees challenged. Jones then stole second and went to third when Rutschman's throw sailed wide of second and into center field. Crochet allowed singles to the next three batters (one was a bunt to third), before he was pulled.

Garret Whitlock came in with New York up 3-1, the bases loaded, and no one out. Whitlock got two outs, but both a fly to left and a grounder to third brought in single runs. It was 5-1. Tracy opted to walk Ben Rice (who was 1-for-3 with a single after his big Game 1) intentionally, a move which backfired horribly when Cody Bellinger hit a three-run dong to right-center. (Not that it mattered in the end. 5-1  would have been more than enough to dismiss the Red Sox.)

Nick Sogard homered in the seventh with two outs. The Yankees also scored in that frame on two walks, three stolen bases, and a single. Boston's season came to an meek and pathetic end when Caleb Durbin swing and missed the final pitch of the night, a 95-mph fastball down the middle.

ALDS: The Yankees will play the Rays. The White Sox swept the Astros 6-3, 7-3 and will play the Guardians. Both series start on Saturday.

NLDS: The Padres beat the Cubs 8-0, 4-1 and will face the Brewers on Saturday.  The Phillies and Atlanta are tied 1-1 (Atlanta won G1 5-3 before Phillies took G2 4-3 in 10 innings). Game 3 is Thursday night; the winner plays the Dodgers beginning on Sunday.

Jones, DH
Rutschman, C
Contreras, 1B
Abreu, RF
Rafaela, CF
Durbin, 3B
Sogard, 2B
Story, SS
Eaton, LF

Sonny Gray / Max Fried

Sonny Gray waived a no-trade clause last December, agreeing to a trade to the Red Sox, because

it feels good to me to go to a place now where it's easy to hate the Yankees. It's easy to go out and have that rivalry and go into it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge.

Gray, 36, will meet his biggest challenge of the season tonight. He was the Red Sox's best starting pitcher in 2026, leading the staff with a 2.72 ERA (8th in MLB) and 150 ERA+ (tied for 10th in MLB). He also tied for the most wins (18), for whatever that's worth. More importantly, he pitched at least six innings in 22 of his 29 starts.

Gray also pitched for the Yankees in 2017 and 2018. He was traded to New York at the 2017 deadline and admits he "never wanted to go there in the first place" and the move was not good for his family.

Jacob Roy, Over The Monster, September 30, 2026:

Let's think about it in innings. The Red Sox used five relievers on Tuesday night . . . That leaves Ranger Suarez, Garrett Crochet, Garrett Whitlock, Aroldis Chapman, and Jake Bennett as the unused [bullpen] pitchers . . . 

Ranger Suarez is set to start game three. Garrett Crochet is a complete unknown. . . . Garrett Whitlock has been one of the best relievers in baseball, but his longest outing of the season is 1.1 innings. . . . Chapman, like Whitlock, has been fantastic, but hasn't got more than three outs in a game this season. If you put those three arms together and assign two innings to Crochet, that's four innings. . . . 

The offense was, at least in terms of scoring, the worst in baseball in September. Roman Anthony was lost in the middle of game one, and the rest of the lineup couldn't touch Schlittler. . . .

For the Red Sox to win today, they need Sonny Gray to turn in one of the best postseason performances of his career.

Roman Anthony was taken off the Red Sox roster and replaced with Curtis Mead. Manager Chad Tracy said:

He was sent back last night after leaving the game. Sent him back to Boston for extra, additional imaging, which actually revealed some new strains to different muscles in his wrist, in addition to exacerbating the old [finger] injury [a partially torn tendon in a joint that connects his right ring finger to his wrist back on May 4].

The roster change means that if the Red Sox win this series, Anthony would be forced to miss the ALDS. 

Max Ralph (mlb.com) reports:

[T]eams taking a 1-0 lead in a three-game Wild Card series have gone on to win the series 21 of 24 times (88%), including 17 two-game sweeps. Home teams have won all nine series in which they have gone ahead 1-0, including eight sweeps.

ALWC 1: Yankees 9, Red Sox 0

 

Red Sox - 000 000 000 - 0  3 0

Yankees - 010 010 25x - 9 12 0

Almost exactly one year ago, on October 2, 2025, in the winner-take-all Game 3 of last year's ALWC series, Cam Schlittler pitched eight shutout innings against the Red Sox, striking out 12. The Yankees mugged Connelly Early in the fourth inning, winning the game with ease, 4-0.

Schlittler was also on the mound Tuesday night in New York, the next postseason game between these two rivals. Schlittler was equally untouchable (6.1-2-0-1-10, 117). He recorded 18 swings-and-misses . . . in the first four innings.

He and two relievers had absolutely no trouble rendering the Red Sox lineup completely impotent. Boston had a total of four baserunners, only one of which got past first base (and was left on second). Of the Red Sox's first 23 outs, only one left the infield.

The Yankees led 2-0 at the stretch and then hammered the back end of the Boston bullpen, scoring seven more runs in two innings. Ben Rice capped an outstanding night, hitting an grand slam in the eighth of Brayan Bello. Rice hit two home runs, a single and a double, scored twice and drove in six. He's the first MFY with multiple homers including a grand slam in a postseasion game.

OptaSTATS reports:

On Tuesday the Yankees' Ben Rice: hit multiple homers, hit a grand slam, had all of his team's XBH, outhit the entire opposing team. No one else in MLB history has done all of that in any game, regular season or postseason.

56 pitchers have made multiple postseason starts against the Red Sox. Schlittler joined Bob Gibson as the only two to have two games of 10+ strikeouts. Gibson fanned 10 Red Sox batters in Games 1 and 7 of the 1967 World Series.

Schlittler now has a 0.47 ERA in his first six career starts against the Red Sox (including postseason) , the lowest by a pitcher against Boston since ERA became an official stat in 1913. . . . His 117 pitches was a career high.

This was the entirety of the Red Sox's offense:

T1: Adley Rutschman singled with one out. Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu both struck out.

T5: Jarren Duran walked with two outs. Trevor Story flied to center.

T7: Abreu singled to right-center (Schlittler's last batter). Ceddanne Rafaela GIDP.

T8: Story doubled with two outs. Caleb Durbin flied to center.

Reached Base Safely

Ben Rice: 4 times in 5 plate appearances

Red Sox: 4 times in 30 plate appearances

September 29, 2026 was the first day in postseason history with two shutouts of 8+ runs. The Padres dismissed the the Cubs 8-0.

The Red Sox are in danger of exiting this postseason without leaving any evidence they were here at all.

Red Sox -  
Yankees -  

G1: Payton Tolle / Cam Schlittler

G2: Sonny Gray / Max Fried

G3: Ranger Suarez / Gerrit Cole

Best-of-3. The winner of the series will play the Rays in the ALDS.

The Red Sox have been in a hitting/scoring slump for most of this month. In 17 games since September 8, they've scored only 42 runs (2.47 runs per game) while going 7-10. In their last eight games, the red Sox have scored more than two runs only once (1, 1, 2, 1, 0, 4, 2, 2). . . . Boston went 6-7 against New York this season. The most runs they scored off the MFY in a game was six, which they did three times.

But all that is old news. It's time to bring the bats because . . .  IT IS ON!

Red Sox & Yankees Will Meet In ALWC On Tuesday

The Red Sox and Yankees are expected to meet in one of the two American League Wild Card series next Tuesday. Boston can grab the AL's #5 seed with a win tonight. The series will be a best-of-3, with all of the games in the Bronx. . . . Will the Red Sox ring in YED 2026 on September 30 or October 1?

The Red Sox are in the postseason thanks to a historic 30-game stretch in which they went 27-3 (.900), a stretch that stands in stark contrast to the 58-70 record (.453) in games before and after that period.

0326-0701:  37-48 .435
0702-0807:  27- 3 .900
0808-0923:  21-22 .488
            85-73 .538  (4 games remaining)

Lefty Garrett Crochet (2025 AL Cy Young runner-up) hasn't pitched in a game since April 25, because of left shoulder inflammation. On Tuesday, he threw 16 pitches of batting practice, hitting 96 mph.

I would say the way that live just went, that I could go get outs. It depends obviously what role they want me in. . . . I know myself, and I know my body, and the biggest thing was that I felt good out there. Felt like I was able to ramp up intensity to a place that I haven't gone yet.

Ian Browne reports that Aroldis Chapman is back after missing about two weeks with a lat issue. "I'm happy to be back. . . . I feel like I'm at 100 percent right now." Manager Chad Tracy expects to have his set-up-closing trio of Tyron Guerrero, Garrett Whitlock and Chapman for the ALWC.

Tracy's starters for this week's series against Cleveland were Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suarez, but he has not yet confirmed that would be the order against the Yankees. . . . Gray's 2.72 ERA is 8th in MLB, 5th in the AL. Tolle (3.03) and Suarez (3.23) are not too far behind in ERA.

The Red Sox went 6-7 against the Yankees this season. Boston's four-game sweep at Fenway (June 25-28) was a bit of a prelude to their 27-3 run.

In 2021, the Red Sox beat the Yankees 6-2 in the Wild Card Game. In the 2025 ALWC, the Yankees defeated the Red Sox 4-3 and 4-0 after Boston won the first game 3-1.

Will perennial IL-lodger and postseason whiff-machine* A-A-Ron Judge play in the series? Judge (right calf strain) said he'll be ready to play ("that's what the plan is"), but his manager said the exact opposite. "We're planning on him not being a part of [the ALWC]." . . . Craig Calcaterra reports that this is "the third or fourth time since Judge came off of his long IL stint this season that he's either contradicted what someone on his team said or otherwise did not go along with the expected flow of ballplayer communications".

*: If strikeouts were hits, Judge would have a .370 postseason batting average (91-for-246). . . . His actual average, in 65 career post-season games, is an unimpressive .236 (58-for-246).

Red Sox Wallop Athletics 13-1 – Now 27-3 In Last 30 Games

Payton Tolle struck out 14 Athletics in six innings on Friday night, the most strikeouts by a Boston pitcher at age 23 or younger since Fat Billy From Ohio fanned 20 Mariners on April 29, 1986, as the Red Sox walloped the Athletics 13-1. Tolle had a career-high 24 swings-and-misses.

Boston is 27-3 over the last 30 games.

Tolle struck out the side in the second, fourth, and sixth innings (231 323). He allowed a leadoff homer in the fifth and an infield single to start the sixth. The Athletics hit only three of Tolle's 84 pitches out of the infield – and only one of Raymond Burgos's 34 pitches in relief.

Some context on the Red Sox's white-hot streak:

Sarah Langs (and Elias): 

The Red Sox are the 10th team since 1900 to enjoy a 27-3 run – and only the third team in the last 73 years. The 1977 Royals and 2017 Clevelands are the others.

The Red Sox began this 27-3 run with a 37-48 record. They are the first team in major league history to win at least 27 games in a 30-game span while entering that span 10+ games under .500. (Only two other teams began a similar 30-game stretch with a record below .500: the 1916 Giants (three games under) and the 1887 St. Louis Browns (one game under).

On June 25, Boston was 32-46. Now they are 64-51. The Red Sox are the fastest team in major league history to go from 14 games under .500 to 13 games over: 44 days, according to Elias. The previous quickest was accomplished 112 years ago by a different Boston team: 59 days, by the 1914 "Miracle" Braves.

The Red Sox began July at 37-47. They ended the month at 58-51. They are the first team in major league history to enter a calendar month 10+ games under .500 and leave that month at least seven games over .500, per Elias. (In fact, only two teams had entered a month 10+ games under and ended the month two games over: Giants (July 2019) and Red Sox (August 1996).

Boston's 21-4 (.840) record in July is the highest winning percentage in a calendar month in franchise history (min. 15 games).

OptaSTATS:

In July the @RedSox:
won 20+ games

had a 15+ game winning streak

had 10+ comeback wins

swept a 9+ game road trip

had a .900+ road win pct
No other team in MLB history has done all of that in a single month.

The Red Sox have won 19 consecutive games against teams from the three largest metro areas in the United States (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago). That's the longest winning streak by any team against opponents from those three metro areas in major league history. . . . The previous record for longest winning streak against foes from the NY/LA/Chicago metro areas was 17 by the 1915 St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League (6 vs. Brooklyn Tip-Tops, 6 vs. Newark Peppers, 5 vs. Chicago Whales).

Payton Tolle is the only MLB pitcher to throw fewer than 85 pitches and have 14+ strikeouts (since pitches were first tracked in 1988).

Lowest ratio of pitches to strikeouts in a major league game (since 1988, min. 75 pitches):
1 K every 5.95 pitches - Max Scherzer, Nationals (9-6-2-0-20, 119) against Tigers, May 11, 2016
1 K every 6.00 pitches - Payton Tolle, Red Sox (6-2-1-0-14, 84) against Athletics August 7, 2026
1 K every 6.10 pitches - Kerry Wood, Cubs (9-1-0-0-20, 122) against Astros, May 6, 1998

P.S.: It's nuts that it took until 1988 for major league baseball to keep track of pitches on any sort of organized basis. That was the National League's 113th season. MLB also waited until 1984 to make on-base percentage, which measures a batter's most essential task (not making an out), an official stat.