DYK: Facts and figures from NLCS Game 3
The National League Championship Series shifted to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Tuesday night, and the Dodgers took advantage, earning a 6-0 victory over the Cubs.
Left-hander Rich Hill tossed six scoreless innings, Corey Seager picked up three hits, and both Yasmani Grandal and Justin Turner homered off Jake Arrieta for the Dodgers, who now lead the best-of-seven series, 2-1.
• NLCS Game 4: Today at 8 p.m. ET on FS1
Here are some facts and figures to know from Game 3:
:: NLCS: Dodgers vs. Cubs coverage ::
• Historically, Los Angeles' Game 3 victory is a good omen. Prior to this fall, teams that grabbed a 2-1 lead in a best-of-seven League Championship Series (dating back to 1985) had gone 38-11, and teams that had won Game 3 at home in a best-of-7 LCS when the series was tied 1-1 had gone on to win 12 out of 19 times.
• After they were shut out 1-0 by Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen in Game 2 on Sunday, the Cubs were shut down by Hill, Joe Blanton, Grant Dayton and Jansen again in Game 3. The Cubs have played in 100 postseason games dating back to 1906, and this is the first time the franchise has gone scoreless in back-to-back games.
Only three other teams have gone scoreless in back-to-back games in a League Championship Series: the 1991 Pirates, 1987 Giants and 1974 Orioles. All three teams went on to lose the series.
• Conversely, Tuesday marked the Dodgers' 200th postseason game in their history, and this was the first time they have posted back-to-back shutouts.
• Cubs hitters have gone just 6-for-60 with one extra-base hit (Dexter Fowler's eighth-inning double Tuesday night) over the last two games in this series. The struggles are most pronounced in Chicago's 3-5 hitters, who have combined to go 2-for-40 (.050) with one extra-base hit, two walks and six strikeouts over the first three games of the NLCS.
• After blanking the Cubs for six innings, the 36-year-old Hill became the oldest pitcher in Los Angeles Dodgers postseason history to author a scoreless start, passing Tommy John, who was 35 when he threw a shutout in Game 2 of the 1978 NLCS.
• Hill's outing came nine years after he made his postseason debut -- with the Cubs. The lefty started Game 3 of the 2007 NLDS against the D-backs, and like on Tuesday, the opposing catcher was Miguel Montero.
• Hill's scoreless start gives the Dodgers two in this series, joining Kershaw's gem in Game 2. Prior to this NLCS, only five pitchers had recorded a scoreless start against Chicago in postseason history.
• This was the Dodgers' first win in a game Kershaw did not pitch in since Sept. 29. In the postseason, Kershaw had appeared in all four of the team's victories, including one as a reliever.
• Seager's RBI single in the bottom of the third wiped away a couple of tough streaks for the NL Rookie of the Year Award frontrunner. Prior to that hit, Seager was 5-for-8 in the first inning but 0-for-23 in every other frame in this postseason. He had also gone hitless in his first 15 postseason at-bats with runners in scoring position before staking the Dodgers to a 1-0 lead.
• Seager's hit was also the first RBI hit given up by Arrieta at Dodger Stadium in more than three years. The last Dodger to drive in a run at home off the Cubs starter was Carl Crawford on Aug. 26, 2013.
• Seager (22 years, 174 days) became the second-youngest player in Dodgers history to have a three-hit postseason game. James Loney (22 years, 153 days) had three hits in Game 3 of the 2006 NLDS.
• With the Dodgers' Adrián González stealing a base in Game 1 and the Cubs' Anthony Rizzo doing the same in Game 3, this is the first LCS in which both teams have gotten a steal from a first baseman.
• Grandal's two-run homer in the fourth inning was hit with an exit velocity of 107.8 mph. That is tied for the second-hardest homer off Arrieta in the Statcast™ era, trailing only one at 108.7 mph by the Pirates' Sean Rodríguez on July 8 of this year.
• Grandal had gone just 3-for-30 in his postseason career before his big home run in the fourth, and the shot was his first extra-base hit in his 11 postseason contests. The homer came on a 3-2 pitch; Grandal knocked 14 homers with two strikes during the regular season, which tied him for the second-most in the NL.
• Grandal's blast means Arrieta has now finally allowed a home run in every current NL ballpark, as Dodger Stadium was the only place in the Senior Circuit in which a batter had yet to take the 2015 Cy Young Award winner deep.
• Arrieta has now allowed more runs in his last four postseason outings -- 14 -- than he did over his incredible second half of 2015, in which he posted an incredible 0.75 ERA.
• Josh Reddick swiped both second and third base in the fourth inning, becoming the first Dodgers player with multiple stolen bases in a postseason game since Steve Sax had three in Game 4 of the 1988 NLCS against the Mets. Only once in the regular season did a Dodger steal multiple bases in a game, as Trayce Thompson had three on June 4 against the Braves.
• With his team up big, Jansen still came in and recorded a fairly easy 1 1/3 innings of relief to seal the Game 3 win. Jansen has now pitched in six of Los Angeles' eight games this postseason, and has accounted for 12.3 percent of the total outs recorded by Dodgers pitchers so far this fall.
• Offense has been at a premium, as the Cubs and Dodgers have combined to hit just .197 (37-for-188) in this series. The all-time lowest combined batting average between two teams in an NLCS is .203, set by the Mets and Reds in 1973.
• The Dodgers are only the third team to record back-to-back postseason shutouts while allowing four or fewer hits in each game. To find the other two, you'd have to go all the way back to the 1919 Reds and, yes, the 1908 Cubs.