MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-22
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-22
T-9. D J LeMahieu, Ryan McMahon and Sean Rodriguez, 35 percent (100%)
Statistically, there are few distinctions among walk-off home runs by the home team. The odds of a victory before the event almost always approach 65 percent, the odds afterward are 100 percent, and that usually puts the value of the home run itself at 35 percent. It’s fairly cold math.
So when four such walk-offs occur in the same week under virtually identical scenarios, what results is a statistical tie in importance that cannot be parsed. That’s what occurred this week.
Harold Ramirez‘s walk-off against Cincinnati is a minor statistical exception that will be dealt with momentarily. As for the other three…
LeMahieu’s leadoff home run capped a Yankee comeback against the Oakland Athletics Saturday. He hit it off Lou Trivino on the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th after Aaron Judge’s eighth-inning home run tied the game.
McMahon’s two-run walk-off homer came in the bottom of the ninth inning of what at the time was a 1-1 tie with Boston. Jerry Blevins gave it up on a 1-1 pitch after Nolan Arenado had walked and Daniel Murphy struck out.
Rodriguez’s home run walked off the Pirates Monday and gave Philadelphia a 6-5 victory. Like LeMahieu, he was the first batter – in this case in the 11th inning. He hit it off, Michael Feliz. Rodriguez’s hit had the distinction of capping a comeback punctuated by the week’s most pivotal base hit. More on that hit below.