Fact of the Week IX: Postseason Debuts

Earlier this week, the 2010 baseball playoffs began. On Wednesday night, the Phillies and Reds matched up, with Roy Halladay finally starting the first playoff game of his career after being traded by the Jays this past offseason. He didn't disappoint, throwing only the second no-hitter in playoff history (after Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series), and only allowing one baserunner on a 5th inning walk to Jay Bruce.

On Thursday night, the Giants and Braves faced off in the first game of their Division Series. Tim Lincecum threw a complete game shutout, giving up only two hits and a walk while striking out 14 batters, two away from the postseason record. Both of the games pitched were amazing, and they were actually only two of 37 complete game shutouts in the postseason since 1977 (the first year of the Blue Jays). They were the first since 2007, when Josh Beckett threw a complete game shutout with the Red Sox, and the second and third since 2004.

These two performances have made the first round of the playoffs already utterly breathtaking, and hopefully the next couple of weeks can live up to the potential that Halladay and Lincecum have shown in their first postseason starts.

In fact, the games were actually rated by Game Score as the fourth and fifth best pitched games in the postseason of all time. Halladay's game score of 94 tied Don Larsen, and Lincecum's game score of 96 was only behind three pitching performances: Babe Ruth in 1916 (a score of 97, boy could he pitch!), Dave McNally in 1969 (97), and Roger Clemens in 2000, with a game score of 98.

What made these performances even better was the fact that both pitchers had never pitched in the postseason before. If we look at the greatest pitching performances in a postseason debut, they rank second and third all-time behind Babe Ruth's 1916 performance (which was utterly amazing, a 14 inning complete game in which he only allowed 1 run in a 2-1 win). So these two games were the best postseason debuts for pitchers in almost 100 years. The fact that they happened on back-to-back nights was incredible.