Mets' Grand Slam Fever, Dodgers' scoreless streak, Ohtani's latest oddity: NLCS Weird & Wild

The Mets went slamming … again. The Dodgers gave up a run (actually seven of them) … for the first time in almost a week. And that Shohei Ohtani guy is doing yet another thing that nobody ever does … because of course he is.

Which means the Mets’ 7-3 win over the Dodgers, in Game 2 of this National League Championship Series, was right up the October Weird and Wild column’s alley. So let’s recap it, starting with the …

Silence of the Slams

Is hitting grand slams in October like the postseason version of playing Wordle? Once you get the hang of it, you just can’t stop?

All right, not quite the same thing. But you’d never know it if you’ve been dialed in on the Mets this month.

They won yet another mammoth postseason game Monday thanks to a momentous grand slam — this one by Mark Vientos. And to find the last time that happened, you had to go all the way back to … um, last Wednesday, when Francisco Lindor’s epic slam finished off the Phillies in the National League Division Series.

Well, once that second Mets slam of the week went roaring through the Chavez Ravine sky, it got our engines humming here at Weird and Wild World HQ. So as the Mets try to diagnose how they caught this case of Grand Slam Fever, let’s dig in on all the cool slam notes we could round up.

DEJA BOOM — Is it safe to say the Mets have not been the rulers of October’s grand slam kingdom? It is. Or at least it was. Let’s review.

Or, to put this another way …

Mets’ first 62 seasons — 92 postseason games, one slam
Last five days — three postseason games, two slams

Only in …

Baseball!

THE FULL COUNT — But you know what? Even that last note doesn’t truly capture this. So let’s do it another way.

Let’s measure the gaps between Mets October slams by how many Mets had to traipse to home plate in between.

(*plate appearances from Mets’ first postseason game to first slam)

OK, now do you get the picture? One slam in over 3,700 plate appearances … including no slams by more than 2,000 Mets hitters in a row … and then barely more than 50 trips to the plate before the next one?

THE ROBIN VENTURA ASTERISK ALERT — But if you’re a true Mets fan, you’re screaming at the top of your lungs right now: What about Robin Ventura!

Excellent thing to scream. And yep, you’re right. The gap between Edgardo Alfonzo’s slam and Lindor’s slam would not have been quite that long if the Mets could have run the bases like a normal team after this memorable Robin Ventura bases-loaded rocket over the fence in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS.

10/17/1999 In a tie game in the 15th inning, Robin Ventura hits a walk-off grand slam for the Mets to keep their season alive. Ventura is only credited with a single because he is mobbed by his teammates before he can round the bases. pic.twitter.com/7gQSim3ZJB

— This Day in Mets History (@NYMhistory) October 17, 2023

It should have been a slam. It turned into the most legendary grand-slam single in history. And it happened just eight games and 12 days after the Alfonzo slam. But one thing that proved conclusively was this: Grand Slam Single Fever was not catching on, because no one has hit another one in any postseason game in the quarter-century since.

GOOD INTENTIONS — Then again, that Vientos grand slam would not have been possible without Dave Roberts. And what did the manager of the Dodgers have to do with this? He decided to intentionally walk Lindor, to fill up the bases for … Mark Vientos.

How’d that decision work out?

MARK VIENTOS GRAND SLAM

THE @METS ARE RAKING IN LA 🤯 pic.twitter.com/DIQYRNusVa

— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024

But now let’s make Roberts feel better. He’s not alone. In fact, according to our friends from STATS Perform, he’s actually the 12th manager in postseason history to issue an intentional walk … and have the next hitter pound a grand slam. I’m thinking he’d love to see the other 11 slams — and you would, too. So here they come!

 (*before intentional walks became an official stat in 1955, but verified by play-by-play)

 (Source: STATS Perform)

 We’d like to express our thanks to Miguel Montero and Rod Beck for their above-and-beyond contribution to that list!

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL — because there are a few other things you need to know about this slam:

• Mark Vientos has now hit a postseason grand slam — but still has never hit a regular-season slam.

• Heck, Vientos has never even hit a regular-season three-run homer.

• Oh, and he never hit a minor-league slam, either — in any of his seven minor-league seasons.

• Oh, and what about Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack, who gave up that slam? He has never allowed a regular-season slam, either … or a regular-season three-run homer.

• But are you ready for the coolest note of them all? Lindor hit his slam last week as a leadoff hitter. Vientos hit his slam Monday as a No. 2 hitter. Which makes the Mets the first team to have their No. 1 and No. 2 hitters go slamming in the same postseason … in the 121st postseason in baseball history. Amazin’!

33-skidoo

Perhaps you found yourself mulling this on Monday afternoon: Hmmm, I wonder if the Dodgers will ever give up another run in this postseason? After all, they hadn’t allowed one for a ridiculous 33 consecutive postseason innings in a row.

But we found someone Monday who was not wondering about that. His name? Francisco Lindor. Whose reaction to that streak looked kind of like this.

LEADOFF LINDOR LASER 💥 #NLCS pic.twitter.com/nDvDghuYti

— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024

Not only did the Dodgers’ historic scoreless streak not make it through the first inning. It didn’t even make it past the first hitter, thanks to that Lindor leadoff bomb. And now, once again, we know what you’re thinking. Admit it. You’re asking this question:

Was this the first 30-plus-inning scoreless streak in history that was ended by a leadoff home run?

I ran that Weird and Wild special past my friends from STATS on Monday. And believe it or not, this was not the first time that happened.

LONGEST SCORELESS STREAKS ENDED BY A LEADOFF HR
(regular-season or postseason, all time)    

(*postseason)
(STATS Perform)

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL — because of course there’s more on this!

• Shut out one day … hit a leadoff home run the next? It’s only the third time in postseason history that’s happened. The other two leadoff bombardiers to go deep leading off a game after their team had been shut out in the previous game:

Kyle Schwarber (Phillies) — 2022 World Series Game 5
Marcus Giles (Braves) — 2001 NLCS Game 2

(SOURCE: Elias Sports Bureau)

• And if you didn’t see that 33-scoreless-inning streak coming, maybe that’s because, over their previous 33 innings (dating back to the final weekend of the regular season), the Dodgers had allowed 22 runs!

• Oh, and one more thing. As loyal reader Jeff Snider noticed days before anyone else, the Dodgers had 19 consecutive pitchers go to the mound during their streak and not give up a run. So is that a postseason record? Of course it is!

And according to STATS, there has been only one other time, in the regular season and/or postseason, that any team got more consecutive scoreless outings than that. And that team was … the 2019 Dodgers, who made it to 21 in a row, starting with the last three games of their regular season that year and running through Game 1 of their NLDS against Washington. But not one pitcher who was part of that streak was part of this one.

Say it ain’t Shoh

We’re used to Shohei Ohtani doing stuff that no one in the history of our civilization has ever done. But his version of Shoh-time in this postseason just might be the Weirdest and Wildest feat of his career.

With runners on base — he’s hitting .750 (6-for-8)! That seems good.

With nobody on base — he’s hitting, well, .000 — as in 0-for-19! That seems … eh, extremely Weird and Wild.

We can’t explain how that’s possible. But at least we can do the research to make it clear how bizarre it really is. So we asked the gang from STATS to take a look. Many, many, many hours later, the great Sam Hovland got back to us with the answer late Monday night. Ready? Here it comes.

Sam found 52 other players in postseason history who had a streak of 0-for-19 or longer with nobody on base in their careers. It was quite a list — from Aaron Judge to Adam Wainwright, from Wade Boggs to Martín Maldonado. And lots more.

But when he looked at how that group fared — at the same time — with runners on base, let’s just say there were no Ohtani-esque characters in the group.

A total of 19 of those 52 players also had an average below .200 with men on. And another 20 had a batting average in the .200s. So nearly everybody who stunk with the bases empty was pretty much equally lousy when there was traffic.

In the end, only one player in the whole wild (and weird) list even approached Ohtani. That was Lorenzo Cain, during the Royals’ run to the parade floats in 2015.

With no one on — 0-for-20 (.000).
With runners on base — 9-for-18 (.500).

But then there’s Ohtani … who beats Cain’s average with men on base by 250 points. So once again, in yet one more category on the stat sheet, we’ve learned something we already knew.

There’s Shohei Ohtani … and then there’s everyone else who ever played baseball.

Party of Three

Before you go, hang on. Just a few more things you totally need to know.

MAXED OUT — We love Max Muncy. He thumped the 12th postseason homer of his career Monday. Only Justin Turner and Corey Seager (13 each) have hit more for the Dodgers.

But here’s an even better tidbit. Muncy has now hit as many postseason home runs for the Dodgers as Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Kirk Gibson put together. Except that those three combined to hit 12 in 312 plate appearances. And Muncy has 12 in 221 plate appearances. Which also means …

Aaron Judge — 13 career postseason HR in 220 PA
Max Muncy — 12 career postseason HR in 221 PA

Discuss!

HOW ’BOUT THIS DAILY DOUBLE — Have we mentioned that Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff home run in the first inning … and Mark Vientos hit a grand slam in the second inning? Hey, I thought it sounded familiar. So did you know …

The Mets are now the first team in postseason history to hit a leadoff homer and a slam in the first two innings of any game? True! And they’re just the third team to jam a leadoff homer and a grand slam into any innings of the same game. The others, according to Elias:

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME … BASEBALL? Finally, the Mets played baseball Monday in the NLCS … and the Yankees played baseball Monday in the ALCS … and the Jets played football Monday on Monday Night Football.

So how many times has that ever happened before – the Yankees and Mets playing postseason baseball, while either the Jets or Giants played on Monday Night Football on the same day? If you guessed none … before Monday … you’re catching on to how this column works.

And of course that’s a good thing!

(Top photo of Mark Vientos hitting a grand slam off Landon Knack: Keith Birmingham / MediaNews Group / Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)