The Mets and Dodgers kick of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) on Fox (Over the Air!) . Kodai Senga takes on Jack Flaherty. Senga came into the post-season with just 5 1/3 innings under his belt. Since 1920, that’s the third fewest innings thrown by a pitcher in the regular season before starting a game in the post season. Dylan Lee of the Braves served as an opener in game four of the 2021 World Series, and had pitched just two innings in the regular season. This year, AJ Smith-Shawver, again of the Braves, got a start in the Wild Card round with just 4 1/3 innings (in one start) under his belt.

This is definitely as 21st century phenomena. Only eight of lowest 50 came in the 20th century, and some of those were related to players returning from WWII or strike years. Even excluding the 2020 pandemic season, there are only 13 of 50.

Senga only faced the Dodgers once in his career, holding them to one run in six innings while he struck out nine.

Flaherty pitched better than his post-season ERA of 4.15 would indicate. His three true-outcomes are good, but he’s either on or off. In three of his six appearances he allowed one run; in the other three he allowed three or four runs. We’ll see which Flaherty shows up for the Dodgers tonight.

Enjoy!