September 18, 2026
Only 11.3% of Carlos Santana‘s strikeouts were on three pitches, the team’s lowest rate dating back to 2000.
Here’s the top six, among players with at least 200 total strikeouts in that span:
Carlos Santana, 11.3%
Jim Thome, 12.4%
Travis Hafner, 12.5%
Ryan Garko, 12.8%
Travis Fryman, 12.9%
Matt LaPorta, 13.0%
Excluding the WC round (which obviously made this more common), Aaron Civale is the 4th pitcher in MLB history to make postseason debut as a SP in a winner-take all game, joining:
1980 – Marty Bystrom, PHI (won)
1974 – Doyle Alexander, BAL (lost)
1924 – Curly Ogden, WSH (won)
With his walk-off single against the Yankees in Game 3, Oscar Gonzalez tied the single-season and career records for postseason go-ahead RBI in the 9th inning or later with three.
The others:
Only Ortiz had all three in a single year (2004).
Gonzalez’s go-ahead RBI:
Steven Kwan is the third rookie in franchise history with a postseason home run, joining Oscar Gonzalez (earlier this postseason vs Rays) and Asdrubal Cabrera (2007 against the Yankees).
Here’s a link to Cabrera’s off Chien-Ming Wang.
And here’s Kwan’s off Gerrit Cole:
Oscar Gonzalez is just the second player in MLB history to hit a walk-off home run in the 15th inning or later to give his team a 1-0 victory.
The other: Willie Mays
Mays hit his in the 16th inning off Warren Spahn, in a legendary duel between Span and Juan Marichal, with both starters throwing complete games.
Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor were each in the Guardians lineup last night for the first time.
They’re the fourth pair of brothers to appear in the same game for Cleveland joining:
Pitchers Gaylord and Jim Perry were also on the Indians during the 1974 and 1975 seasons, but never appeared in the same game.
Dave and Vean Gregg were also briefly teammates in 1913, though Dave appeared in just one game.
Yu Chang has signed with the Red Sox, his fourth team of the season (also Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay).
He’s the 16th player to suit up for four teams in one year.
The others to do so with a stop in Cleveland:
With a three-run homer against the Red Sox, Nolan Jones became the seventh player in franchise history with 12 RBI thru 15 career games:
Ken Keltner, 17
Albert Belle, 15
Carlos Santana, 14
Roy Weatherly, 13
Jones, 12
Walt Bond, 12
Frank Scheibeck, 12
Bryan Shaw is the oldest pitcher to make his first career start for Cleveland since Doug Jones (also 34) in 1991.
Jones, an All-Star from 1988-90, was awful in 1991. So he was demoted to AAA, turned into a starter and returned in September.
Jones threw 8 2/3 innings against Milwaukee in his debut as a starter, picking up the win. Then he struck out 13 Tigers in 8 innings in his second outing.
He made 2 more starts, going 3-1 overall with a 3.77 ERA before he returned to closer duties in his final outing of the year.
He signed with Houston that offseason and returned to All-Star closer form.
Sandy Leon is the first Cleveland position player to toss two scoreless innings since Willie Smith in 1968. But that deserves as asterisk since Smith started his MLB career as a pitcher.
Prior to Smith, it was Rocky Colavito in 1958 vs Detroit.