During last weekend’s Cardinals-Phillies series, I caught a few at-bats where Aaron Nola was pitching and Nolan Arenado was hitting. A matchup I like to call AaroNolEnado. Two dudes, just 7 unique letters between them. ARONLED. I figured that had to be a record. Or at least an almost record.
I got excited and texted my buddy Natan, a crossword constructor, word nerd, and baseball fan. He sent off a tweet in which he identified the 7 unique letters in the matchup as spelling LADRONE (a Scottish term for thief that I’ve totally heard of before). Jeremy Frank (aka the very appropriately titled @MLBRandomStats), chimed in to reveal that the 7 unique letters between Nola and Arenado is shockingly not an MLB record, but tied for a playoff record:
He went on to reveal that there have been at least a few dozen instances of 6 unique letter matchups in the regular season. The next step here is figuring out how many of those letter sets can be re-scrambled to form a crossword-appropriate word. What a fun weekend activity!!
I think when the pitcher and the hitter share a name, this unique letter stat is cheapened a bit. Even more so when they share both names, like the legendary Will Smith vs. Will Smith matchup. The hitting Smith (hitsmith?) is 1-7 lifetime against the pitching Smith (pitchsmith?), with that one being a huge dinger in Game 5 of the 2020 NLCS.
Obviously, I’m gonna post the Spiderman meme here. Come on.
Aaron Nola and Nolan Arenado are four unique names - and 21 total letters! This is not a cheap Ed Ott situation where one guy only has five letters in his name. So without doing any further research, I feel pretty confident in saying the AaroNolEnado matchup was an MLB playoff(!) record for most unique letters in a hitter-pitcher matchup featuring two players who do not share any names. We did it! We set a record!
An aside: for a quick second I got very excited about Padres catcher Austin Nola, marveling at how remarkable it is that there are two big leaguers with the last name Nola and a first name that starts with A before quickly realizing that, duh, they are brothers. I always think it’s remarkable when multiple siblings in a family are professional athletes, but it kinda makes sense, like from a genepool, I guess? Like, I’m an only child, but if I had a sibling, they would probably also be a degenerate gambler with a periodic newsletter.
Po$t$eason Pick$
Did I go on a weird letter tangent solely to distract from the fact that my wildcard pick$ were 0-4 last week? Maybe! But no shame in being perfectly imperfect! I am undefeated at being defeated!
Alas, games are being played, and picks need to be made. And so we’re back.
Astros 2 - Mariners 0
The Astros came from behind in both of their first two games against the Mariners, with Yordan Álvarez hitting a go-ahead homer in EACH game. He is mashing the ball, and the Mariners should seriously consider intentionally walking him each time he comes to the plate for the remainder of the series. Sadly, it looks like the M’s run will come to an end this weekend. But good for Seattle for getting to host a home playoff game! I think they avoid the sweep on Saturday, so gimme Seattle (-115).
Yankees 1 - Guardians 0
Yanks and Guardians were rained out last night, and are playing this afternoon at 1pm. The Guardians are sending out Shane Bieber, who threw a marvelous 7 2/3 innings against the Rays last weekend, allowing just 1 run on three hits. The Yankees counter with Nestor Cortes, who I could probably dress up as for Halloween if the thought of wearing a Yankees uniform didn’t make me vomit .
The Yankees are probably gonna win. They had a strong record in day games during the regular season, and Cortes has been lights out over the last month. Cortes is very fun to watch: he mixes up his timing and arm slots, and keeps opposing hitters off balance.
All that said, there’s no way in hell I’m betting on the Yankees, so gimme the Guardians (+135).
Braves 1 - Phillies 1
The Phillies were able to get to Atlanta’s ace Max Fried in Game 1 and hold on for a 7-6 victory, while the Braves rode to a 3-0 victory behind a strong start from Kyle Wright. Also, Kyle Wright has gotta be one of the most boring names in professional sports. It’s not even saved by the kinda almost rhyme that it has.
Today as the series moves to Philly, we get a very spicy matchup between Aaron Nola and Spencer Strider. Strider was the quickest pitcher to record 200 strikeouts in a season in MLB history, needing just 130 innings to do so. He has an awesome mustache. Also Strider is a fun last name for a pitcher, since your leg kick forward is certainly a type of stride. And, oh yeah, he is a rookie. Nola threw 6 2/3 shutout innings against the Cardinals last weekend.
The Phillies haven’t played a home game since Sunday, September 25. That’s nearly three weeks. Factor in that this is their first playoff home game in about a decade, and I like the Phillies to jump out early. Nola makes it stand up, and the Phils take a 2-1 series lead. Phillies (-110).
Dodgers 1 - Padres 1
This is the sexiest matchup of this round. Lotta hatred between the fans! I don’t condone (most) fighting, and the glorification of fan on fan fighting is probably pretty bad for society as a whole. But I am not a perfect person and I do follow Baseball Fight Club on twitter and, well, Dodgers and Padres fans are almost definitely gonna end up on there later.
Tonight the Padres trot out Blake Snell, who only lasted 3 1/3 against the Mets last weekend. Tony Gonsolin pitches for the Dodgers. Gonsolin has been very, very solid all season. Small sample size, but he’s given up just one run to San Diego in two starts this year. Also, Gonsolin is a fun name, and sorta reminds me of gondolier.
Add it all up, and I should pick the Dodgers. But you know what - I don’t want the Dodgers to win! Last time Snell faced the Dodgers in the playoffs he dominated them right up until Rays manager Kevin Cash decided to pull him in like the 4th inning or something ridiculous. Snell bounces back. Tough luck for The Gondoliers, but gimme the Pirates of Penzance Padres (+100)!
Happy Friday -
Matt