Marty’s musings: the Rays and Dodgers are putting on a World Series show

Welcome to ‘Marty’s Musings’, my weekly column of numbers summarizing the happenings in the baseball world. I am your guide for taking an analytic look at the news and notes throughout the game, and highlighting this week’s key pitching matchups.

The Rays and Dodgers threw down last week and head into a game six on Tuesday with the Dodgers up 3-2 on the Rays. A look at what happened over the last week, and how things stack-up heading into the final one...and possibly two games of this MLB season.

News & Notes

1 - Game lead for the Los Angeles Dodgers who are just one win away from their first World Series championship since 1988.

10 - Percent chance the Rays’ had of of winning game four when pinch runner for Ji-Man Choi, Brett Phillips’ spot came up to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The improbable hero who dunked a single into shallow right field to win the game wasn’t even on the ALCS roster for the Rays. If you somehow haven’t seen the last play of the game, you can find it here, but the win probability chart tells the story of a wild one.

4 - Career blown saves in the World Series for Kenley Jansen who did not allow a hard-hit ball, and was the victim of two errors on the last play of the game in game four.

3 - Earned runs given up by Clayton Kershaw in 11 ⅔ innings this World Series. Kershaw has had his ups-and-downs in the playoffs throughout his career, but he’s taken the Dodgers and delivered two strong outings en route to two World Series wins.

19 - Home runs in the first five games of the World Series. 11 have come from Dodgers’ bats with eight coming from the Rays. Brandon Lowe has cranked three this series, including two homers in game four, Corey Seager and Justin Turner have two each for LA, with Randy Arozarena and Kevin Kiermaier both mashing two for Tampa.

Enjoy the end of this entertaining World Series. It’s going to be a long winter for many reasons...