The Yankees entered the 2017 AL Wild Card heavy favorites over the upstart Twins, but immediately found themselves in a big hole. Leadoff man Brian Dozier homered off Yankees starter Luis Severino and then the Twins added two more. After a Max Kepler double, the Twins had runners at second and third with one out and that was it. Manager Joe Girardi pulled Severino.
Chad Green would strand both runners he inherited, saving Severino from an even uglier line.
His final stat line: 1/3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
Yuck.
Thanks to baseball-reference.com's play index, I can track down 16 previous starts in postseason history where the pitcher got one or zero outs while allowing at least three earned runs. Only two such cases happened in the wild-card era:
- In Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS, Mets starter Al Leiter gave up five earned runs to the Braves without even recording an out.
- In Game 5 of the 2000 ALDS between the Yankees and Athletics, A's starter Gil Heredia coughed up six runs in 1/3 of an inning.
Of the 16 previous starts mentioned here, 15 teams with the starter having such a horrible outing lost. The one winner was the 1925 Pirates, who overcome a 1/3-inning, four-run outing from Vic Aldridge to beat the Washington Senators in Game 7 of the World Series.
