The Baseball Buffet for 10/28/2025

Issue #438

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 216th day of the season featured game 3 of the 2025 World Series:

TOR 5, LAD 6 - 18 innings, lasting 6-hours, 39-minutes. 31 hits, 29 strikeouts, 19 pitchers used. Maybe we should have the ghost-running Manfred Man in the postseason, after all? NOT.

Even though it was a game three and not a decisive game seven or the like, this was arguably the most epic World Series game ever. It began simply enough, with Tyler Glasnow getting three straight outs in the top of the first, and then Shohei Ohtani hitting a double down the right field line, but Max Scherzer recording three straight outs too.

The Dodgers got on the board with a Teoscar Hernández solo HR in the second and an Ohtani solo HR in the third. RF Addison Barger kept another run from crossing by nailing Freddie Freeman at the plate to end the inning. Score is TOR 0, LAD 2.

The Jays got to Glasnow in the top of the fourth as he walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and then Bo Bichette reached due to an error by 2B Tommy Edman. With one out, Alejandro Kirk hit a 3-run HR to give Toronto the lead. They added another run after Barger and Ernie Clement hit singles, and Andrés Giménez drove in Barger with a sac fly. Score is TOR 4, LAD 2.

In the bottom of the fifth, Kiké Hernández hit a single to center. With one out, Mason Fluharty replaced Scherzer, but immediately gave up a double to Ohtani, driving in Hernández. Then with with two outs Freeman singled to right and drove in Ohtani. Score is TOR 4, LAD 4.

In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and Teoscar Hernández on first, Kiké Hernández hit a grounder and Giménez made a leaping, long throw to first but it wasn't close... except Vladdy then threw a rocket across the diamond to get Teoscar who was trying to advance to third. Inning over.

In the top of the seventh, with two outs, Guerrero Jr. gets on base with a single to center. Bichette hits a ground ball to right that takes a wild ricochet off the side wall, and Guerrero Jr. hustles all the way home and beats the throw and tag attempt. Interestingly, an announcer had just described Guerrero Jr. as "... not usually a menace on the bases." Score is TOR 5, LAD 4.

Bottom of the seventh, with one out, announcer John Smoltz says "Location, location, location is the most important thing"... and Ohtani promptly hits a pitch down the middle by Seranthony Domínguez for a HR to tie the game. Score is TOR 5, LAD 5.

The Jays threatened in the top of the eighth, but Roki Sasaki got the Dodgers out of it unscathed. In the top of the ninth, Daulton Varsho singled on a line drive that deflected off Freeman's glove, but Edman makes a great slide-and-throw play that nailed Isiah Kiner-Falefa who was trying to advance to third.

Then in the bottom of the ninth, Toronto elected to intentionally walk Ohtani. With Mookie Betts up and one out, Ohtani tried to steal second to get into scoring position, but Kirk threw him out after Ohtani's momentum carried him off the base with Kiner-Falefa's tag still applied. Mookie flies out, and we went into extra innings… and an entire second game is played, as it goes to 18 innings!

No runs are scored from innings 10 through 17. The Jays had a runner thrown out at home by Edman in the top of the tenth. In the top of the 12th the Jays loaded the bases, and with two outs the Dodgers brought in future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. He induces Nathan Lukes to hit a weak grounder to second, and Edman glove flips the ball to Freeman for the third out.

In the bottom of the 13th Edman led off with a double, and then with two outs the Jays strategically have Eric Lauer intentionally walk both Ohtani and Betts. Freeman hits a warning-track shot to center... but it didn't have quite enough distance.

At this point both teams had used a lot of pitchers, including several who only were in for one out to close out an inning. So Toronto's Eric Lauer (4.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 2 K) and the Dodgers' Will Klein (4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) were called upon to go long as relievers, and both delivered. In particular, according to the announcers, Klein threw 72 pitches after only ever having thrown a max of 30 as a reliever in the majors before.

Finally, in the bottom of the 18th, postseason hero Freddie Freeman led off the inning against Brendon Little (who had pitched the 17th also)... and hit a HR to centerfield for the walk-off victory. And the home crowd goes wild!

Even with all of that, there is more that could be said about this game. Like the fact that Ohtani was 4-4 with 2 HR, 2 doubles, and 5 walks—yes, he got on base nine times! So for further reference:

• Here is the box score

• Here is the series of video clips of all the scoring and other key plays.

• Here is a good article by MLB's Sarah Langs: 11 astonishing facts from 18 innings of World Series history

• And another by Manny Randhawa at MLB: The 6 outs on the bases, ranked

Today’s Trivia Question

We all know that the Yankees have won the most World Series championships (27). But what three franchises are next in their number of World Series championships, with 11, 9, and 9, respectively?

Trivia answers are at the bottom of each newsletter.

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On October 28…

• 1954: A decision that soon leads to the Athletics leaving Philadelphia. “Major League Baseball owners vote down the sale of the Philadelphia Athletics to a hometown syndicate. A week later, Arnold Johnson will buy a controlling interest in the Athletics from the Mack family for $3.5 million and move the team to Kansas City.”

• 1968: Bob Gibson wins NL Cy Young Award in Year of the Pitcher. “Future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals wins his first Cy Young Award. Gibson is a unanimous choice after dominating hitters with a 22-9 record and an ERA of 1.12 during the "Year of the Pitcher."

• 1981: Pedro Guerrero powers the Dodgers to win the World Series over the Yankees. “Behind the solid pitching of Burt Hooton, the Los Angeles Dodgers complete a World Series comeback, defeating the New York Yankees, 9-2, in Game 6. The Dodgers had trailed the Series two games to none before bouncing back to win four straight games. Pedro Guerrero drives in five runs for Los Angeles, who avenge two six-game World Series defeats to the Yankees in 1977 and 1978. It is the third time this postseason Los Angeles comes from behind to win a series: they were 0-2 behind Houston in the NLDS and 1-2 behind the Expos in the NLCS. Guerrero, Ron Cey and Steve Yeager share the Series MVP Award.”

• 1995: Braves win first World Series in Atlanta. “The Braves win their first World Series since moving to Atlanta with a 1-0 shutout of Cleveland in Game 6. Pitchers Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers combine on a one-hitter and David Justice hits a home run in the 6th inning for the only run. Jim Poole is the losing pitcher.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Bob Veale (1935)

• 13-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1962-1974, mostly with the Pirates

• Two-time All-Star

• Had 200+ strikeouts four times, including leading the NL with 250 K in 1964 and then posting a career high 276 K in 1965

• Also walked a lot of batters, leading the NL four times

• Won 16-18 games each year from 1964-1967

• Overall had a 120-95 (.558) record, a 3.07 ERA, and a 113 ERA+

Tommy Tucker (1863)

• 13-year major league career as a 1B, spanning from 1887-1899, mostly with Baltimore of the American Association and Boston of the National League

• Scored 100+ runs five times, and had 20+ SB in each of his first six seasons, including a career high 85 SB in his rookie campaign

• Led the NL with a .372 average and 196 hits in 1889

• Overall had 352 SB, 1,084 runs, a .290/.364/.373 slash line, and a 103 OPS+

Hurley McNair (1888)

• 10-year major league career in the Negro Leagues from 1920-1928, with a few more games in 1937. Mostly played with the Kansas City Monarchs.

• Played for several teams from 1910-1917 in non-major Negro Leagues, before joining the NNL in 1920

• For the Monarchs he played a mix of mostly LF and RF, and was a capable batsman with six seasons with a .300+ average, including a high of .374 in 382 plate appearances in 1922

• According to the data available at baseball-reference.com, overall he had a major leagues .323/.395/.469 slash line and a 135 OPS+

Artie Wilson (1920)

• 6-year major league career, mostly in the Negro Leagues, and a brief stint with the New York Giants in 1951

• The data at baseball-reference.com is limited for those seasons, but by all accounts he was a high-average hitter (.366/428/.460 slash line and 153 OPS+ spread across 541 plate appearances over six seasons)

• More data is available from when he later played in the Pacific Coast League, such as from 1952-1955 when he posted average of .316, .332, .336, and .307 in over 150 games per year

• According to Wikipedia, Wilson was the PCL's first Black player in 1948 and for a while the roommate of Billy Martin

Juan Guzmán (1966)

• 10-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1991-2000, mostly with the Blue Jays

• Came in second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1991 after going 10-3 with a 2.99 ERA over 138.2 innings

• Was an All-Star in 1992 with a 16-5 record and 2.64 ERA

• Led the AL with a 2.93 ERA in 1996

• Overall had a 91-79 (.535) record, a 4.08 ERA, and a 112 ERA+

• Was generally effective in the postseason for the Blue Jays from 1991-1993, with a 5-1 record in 8 starts, and a 2.44 ERA over 51.2 IP

Frank Smith (1879)

• 11-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1904-1915, starting with the seven years for the White Sox and the remainder spread over four different clubs

• Had several fine seasons early on, including going 16-9 with a 2.08 ERA as a rookie in 1904, then 19-13 with a 2.13 ERA the following season. He was 23-10 with 2.47 ERA in 1907 and then in 1909 was 25-17 with a 1.80 ERA and league-leading 37 complete games and 365 IP.

• Threw two no-hitters (1905 and 1908)

• Overall had a 139-111 (.556) record, a 2.59 ERA, though for his time period that was only a 101 ERA+

Lenny Harris (1964)

• 18-year major league career, spanning from 1988-2005, and playing for eight teams, but mostly with the Reds, Dodgers, Mets, and Marlins

• Extremely versatile in the field, he played 300+ games at both 3B and 2B, 150+ in both RF and LF, and 50+ at both SS and 1B

• A left-handed batter who hit RHP better than LHP, he holds the all-time record for most games played as a pinch-hitter (883) and pinch-hits (204). His overall batting average as a PH was .264.

• Overall for his career he had 131 SB and a .269 average

Currently active players who were born on October 28 include ATL Spencer Strider, ATH Willie MacIver, CLE C.J. Kayfus, SEA Casey Lawrence, and AZ Jake Woodford.

Today’s Matchup

Tonight we have game four of the 2025 World Series, which after last night’s epic 18-inning game the Dodgers now lead 2-1.

TOR vs. LAD, 8:00pm ET - Just about everyone pitched yesterday except today’s two starters, which are Shane Bieber for Toronto and some guy name Ohtani for the Dodgers. A few notes:

• Postseason hero George Springer has done well against Ohtani, going 7-15 (.467) with 2 HR. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been 3-9 with a HR as well.

• Ohtani (2-13) has struggled to hit against Bieber, and so has Teoscar Hernández (2-15) and Mookie Betts (1-9). However, Kiké Hernández is 3-6 and Freeman is 1-5 with a HR.

⚾ I hope you enjoy the game today!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

After the Yankees, the three franchises with the most World Series championships are:

• 11 - St. Louis Cardinals

• 9 - Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics

• 9 - Boston Red Sox

Next in the list, with 8 apiece, are the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York/San Francisco Giants.

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• The New York Yankees Need to Make Bold Moves This Offseason, by Chris Jensen at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 10/27/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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