MLB’s greatest hits: Sept. 1-7
If Christian Yelich successfully defends the National League Most Valuable Player award he won in 2018, weeks like this past one will be the reason why.
Twice during the just-concluded week, Yelich resuscitated the Brewers’ flagging post-season hopes with a critical late-game hit. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, only one of those hits actually resulted in a win; the Brewers wasted the first of their star’s key hits.
His dual performance highlighted a week of memorable individual achievements around MLB. In Toronto, Houston’s Abraham Toro ratified Justin Verlander’s bid for a third no-hitter with a two-run home run that broke up a scoreless tie. And in Washington, Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki capped the most unlikely of ninth inning rallies with a three-run home run that staggered the New York Mets.
This countdown recognizes the 10 most game-critical base hits of the MLB’s past week. Our measuring stick is Weighted Win Probability Added, which is the percentage improvement in a team’s chances of victory brought about by the hit in question. Where ties exist, they are broken by Weighted Win Expectancy, which is the probability of a team’s winning the game at the conclusion of the play.
Weighted Win Probability Added is one of those so-called New Stats, but it’s based on data that’s been around a while. Simply put, every at bat improves or harms a team’s chances of winning, depending on the game situation and the at bat’s outcome. A home run hit in the late stages of a tight game is far more susceptible to move the Weighted Win Probability needle than the same home run hit in the early stages of a blowout.
From 10 to 1, here’s the full list of the 10 most meaningful base hits of the past week.