J-Rod Walk Off HR Advances Mariners in "What if No Injuries" Statis-Pro Playoffs

In the 3-game series, the Mariners never led except for when they hit walk off homers in Games 1 and 3.

Our short 2024 Statis-Pro Baseball Season came down to the bottom of the 11th inning with the Yankees Clarke Schmidt needing to retire the Mariners Julio Rodríguez to hold on for a 5-3 Yankees win and 2 games to 1 Wild Card Series win.

If the Mariners had made the actual playoffs and this were the match-up, we would have expected a Yankees win because Schmidt had a dominant season that would result in a PB 2-9 card which would have in fact retired Rodriguez in this game. Meanwhile Rodriguez played through injuries to compile and OPS more than .100 points lower than was projected and thus resulted in one of the best hitting cards in the game.

However, if the two had faced off in mid-June, when the Mariners were winning their division by 10 games and Clark was on DL with a career ERA of above 4.00, we would have assumed a Rodriguez game-winner, which is what we go with a game winning series ending walk off homer. 

This "What-if" season during which we let all player cards be used despite real seasons now lets the Mariners advanced to play the full-strength Houston Astros - with Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker and Justin Verlander at full-strength unlike the actual season - in our playoff.

In the Statis-Pro season this year, the Yankees bullpen is scary bad and that was the difference in this one, as Cal Raleigh hit a game-winning walk off 9th inning homer in Game 1 for a 3-2 win to spoil an 8-inning gem by Gerrit Cole.  Earlier in the game Aaron Judge homered, and then he hit a deep drive that was caught at the wall (a 56 random number, while T-Mobile Park allows homers on 11-53.).

In Game 2, Judge homered again in an 8-3 blowout win to even the series.

 

Innings Game 1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
NY Yankees (2)	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Seattle Marines (3)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2
Innings Game 2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
NY Yankees (8)	2	2	0	0	1	0	2	1	0
Seattle Mariners (3)	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Innings Game 3	1	2	3	4	5	8	9	10	11
NY Yankees (5)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	2
Seattle Mariners (6)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	3
2024 NY Yankees	OPS	Pos	HR	OBR/SP	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (fr MIA)	0.764	RF	25-32	A/AA	14	2	6	2	3 SB, 2B
Juan Soto	0.960	DH	23-31	D/B	9	3	3	1	4 BBs
Aaron Judge	0.954	RF	21-31	E/C	14	2	2	3	2 HRs
Gleyber Torres	0.797	2b	27-33	C/B	14	1	0	0
Giancarlo Stanton	0.776	LF	18-26	E/E	14	0	1	0
Ben Rice (Temp #4)	0.746	1b	27-31	D/E	2	1	1	1	HR
Jon Berti	0.695	PR	31-32	A/A	0	1	0	0	2 SB
DJ LeMahieu	0.719	1b	27-31	D/C	1	0	0	0
Anthony Rizzo	0.759	1b	22-27	E/D	9	1	2	2	HR
Jose Trevino	0.648	C	27-31	D/D	2	0	0	0	BB
Austin Wells	0.709	C	23-26	C/C	11	0	2	0
Anthony Volpe	0.710	SS	22-26	A/AA	10	2	2	2	SB, HR
Trent Grisham	0.727	cf	21-24	B/A	12	2	3	3	2 HRs
Batting Average					112	15	22	14	0.196
2024 Seattle Mariners	OPS	Pos	HR	OBR/SP	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Julio Rodríguez	0.841	CF	28-35	A/AAA	12	3	4	4	GW-HR, SB
Randy Arozarena (fr TBR)	0.800	LF	27-32	B/B	13	2	2	1	3B
Justin Turner (fr TOR)	0.746	3b	28-32	E/D	13	0	1	1
Cal Raleigh	0.761	C	22-28	E/D	13	2	3	2	2B, HR
Mitch Garver	0.757	DH	22-27	E/D	12	2	2	2	2 HR
Jorge Polanco	0.742	2b	25-31	D/C	9	1	2	2	HR
J.P. Crawford	0.736	SS	28-31	E/C	11	0	1	0
Luke Raley	0.729	1B	23-27	B/B	9	0	0	0
Victor Robles (fr wsn)	0.691	RF	27-31	A/A	10	2	1	0
Batting Average					102	12	16	12	0.157
NY Yankees Pitchers	ERA	PB	K	Max IP	IP	H^W^K	R	ER	Notes
Gerrit Cole	3.62	2'-8	24'-46	7	8	4^1^6	1	1
Marcus Stroman	4.03	2'-7	21'-32	7	4.3	3^0^3	2	2	L G1, Sv G2
Carlos Rodón	3.82	2'-9	22'-41	6	5	5^0^5	3	3	W G2
Nestor Cortes	4.02	2'-8	24'-42	5	5	3^4^2	1	1
Clay Holmes	3.54	2'-7	31'-51	2	2	1^0^2	0	0
Jonathan Loáisiga	3.73	4'-7	25'-38	2	1	0^0^1	0	0
Clarke Schmidt	4.39	2'-7	24'-37	6	2.7	6^0^0	5	5	L G3
Pitching Totals					28		12	12	3.86
Seattle Pitching	ERA	PB	K	Max IP	IP	H^W^K	R	ER	Notes
Luis Castillo	3.46	2'-8	23'-43	7	7	4^2^6	2	2
Bryce Miller	4.10	2'-7	23'-35	6	2.7	0^0^1	0	0	W G1
Andrés Muñoz	2.90	2'-9	17'-44	2	4.3	1^1^3	2	2	Sv G1
George Kirby	3.56	2'-8	26'-42	7	4.3	7^1^6	5	5	L G2
Yimi García (fr TOR)	3.91	4'-7	24'-43	2	1	2^0^2	2	2
Gabe Speier	3.57	4'-7	24'-43	2	1.7	1^0^1	1	1
Logan Gilbert	3.69	2'-8	25'-42	7	7	2^1^2	1	1
Matt Brash	3.29	2'-7	33'-62	2	1	2^2^1	2	2	W G3
Pitching Totals					29	0	15	15	4.66

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