brainwagon

Wow, last night’s Game 4 of the NLCS was a real nailbighter, with the Giants ultimately prevailing 6-5 in a game which saw three different lead changes. I’ve begun to look at baseball-reference.com for play-by-play and statistical analysis, since it breaks down the outcome of each play and gives the change in winning percentage as results. The graphs of winning percentage seem to me a more natural (and more meaningful) statistic than “momentum” or other similar measures. They also identify the top plays (which are plays which significantly change the winning percentage). If you click through here, you can see the NLCS, and its up and down nature.

National League Championship Series (NLCS) Game 4, Phillies at Giants

If you compare this to the snoozer that was the Yankees defeating Texas 7-2, you can judge for yourself what the more interesting game was.

American League Championship Series (ALCS) Game 5, Rangers at Yankees

The Giants have the opportunity to close out the series tonight at home. I was at the Game 6 where the Giants closed out against St. Louis to earn their last trip to the big show. Sadly, I’ll have to watch this one at home, but I’m still pretty excited.

Lincecum vs. Halladay. It doesn’t get much better than that.