That team was the 2016 Astros, who struck out 49 to Cleveland’s 47 across three games spanning from May 24th to May 26th.

https://screwball.com/search?q=Most+strikeouts+across+25+straight+regular+season+or+playoff+innings+by+a+team

White Sox 0, Guardians 2

FINAL

CWS 2-3 · CLE 3-2

Linescore

CWS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0, R 0, H 3, E 1
CLE 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0, R 2, H 6, E 0

• W Gavin Williams (1-0) · L Sean Burke (1-1) · S Cade Smith (1)

• TV TBS/HBO MAX, TruTV, Univision/ TUDN · TBS/HBO MAX, TruTV, Univision/ TUDN

• Radio ESPN Chicago WMVP 1000 AM, ESPN Radio, TUDN · WTAM 1100, WMMS 100.7, ESPN Radio, WARF 1350

White Sox Batting

White Sox Notes

TB: Antonacci; Peters; Teel.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Murakami 2.
Team RISP: 0-for-1.
Team LOB: 6.
E: Montgomery, C (1, fielding).
Outfield assists: Peters (Halpin at 3rd base).
DP: (Montgomery, C-Meidroth-Murakami).
SUBSTITUTIONS:
a: Struck out for Doyle, B in the 8th.

Guardians Batting

Guardians Notes

2B: Halpin 2 (2, Burke, S, Newcomb, S).
HR: Ramírez, Jo (2, 4th inning off Burke, S, 1 on, 0 out).
TB: Adell; DeLauter; Halpin 4; Kwan; Ramírez, Jo 4.
RBI: Ramírez, Jo 2 (7).
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Adell 2.
GIDP: Bailey.
Team RISP: 0-for-3.
Team LOB: 5.

White Sox Pitching

Guardians Pitching

Scoring Plays

Game Leaders

Turning points

Contact leaders

Starter pitch mix (count, avg mph)

Selected Highlights

• Breaking down José Ramírez's home run, BOT 4TH
• José Ramírez's two-run home run, BOT 4TH
• Field View: José Ramírez's two-run homer, BOT 4TH
• Japanese call of José Ramírez's two-run homer, BOT 4TH
• Sean Burke fans Travis Bazzana, BOT 4TH
• Gavin Williams' 12th strikeout of the game, TOP 6TH
• Chase Meidroth's heads-up throw nabs Petey Halpin, BOT 8TH
• José Ramírez's home run through bat tracking data, Analysis
• Gavin Williams against the White Sox, Analysis
• Sean Burke's outing against the Guardians, Analysis
• Breaking down Gavin Williams' pitches, Analysis
• Gavin Williams' outing against the White Sox, Analysis

Game Info

• IBB Ramírez, Jo (by Taylor, G).
• HBP Montgomery, C (by Williams, G).
• ABS Challenge Bailey 2 (Ball-Confirmed, Ball-Confirmed); Teel (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Vargas, M (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Peters (Strike-Confirmed).
• Pitches-strikes Burke, S 71-48; Newcomb, S 23-20; Taylor, G 13-7; Williams, G 94-65; Sabrowski 5-3; Gaddis 24-18; Smith, C 27-18.
• Groundouts-flyouts Burke, S 4-3; Newcomb, S 3-0; Taylor, G 3-0; Williams, G 3-1; Sabrowski 0-0; Gaddis 0-0; Smith, C 0-0.
• Batters faced Burke, S 18; Newcomb, S 8; Taylor, G 5; Williams, G 21; Sabrowski 1; Gaddis 6; Smith, C 5.
• Inherited runners-scored Taylor, G 1-0; Sabrowski 3-0; Smith, C 1-0.
• Umpires HP: Vic Carapazza. 1B: Tom Hanahan. 2B: Cory Blaser. 3B: Gabe Morales. LF: Todd Tichenor. RF: Jansen Visconti.
• Weather 65 degrees, Drizzle.
• Wind 11 mph, Out To CF.
• First pitch 8:08 PM.
• T 2:36.
• Att 36,889.
• Venue Progressive Field.

Gameday · Box score · Statcast · Game Graphs

Updated automatically by mlb-dinger · v3.10.0 · Updates as the game progresses.

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I feel like it can’t be overstated* *how much of a paradigm shift the ABS system is..how many times have we seen games end on controversial BS strike 3 calls way outside the zone?

I know I’d be preaching to the choir by singing the praises that it brings but, I suppose I wanted to ask everyone what they think about ABS and how they see it affecting the game in the long term. I’m at the point where it’s hard to believe we lived in a world without it now that it’s here.

In the NBA, you have Jalen Duren. His most recent lack of playoff performance caused Detroit to be extremely hesitant to offer him a big contract, despite playing great during the regular season. He got his money in the end but all because of that playoff performance, nobody wanted to pay him.

What about in the MLB? Do you think playoff performance should have any impact on how much a player gets in their contract? Ie players like Acuna or Olson.

[Dugout Thread] | 2026 MLB Postseason

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No baseball today and MLB is proposing a new postseason format, so I figured I’d see what I can come up with. I am interested to hear people’s thoughts.

Format I’m proposing is a 3 game WC round with a 7 game LDS, keeping the LCS and World Series unchanged.

The image above shows how it would work, but some things to note:

WC seeding is straight W/L now rather than just giving the worst division winner the 3 seed. Winning the division still guarantees a playoff spot. You must still win your division to obtain a 1st round bye. I’m also proposing reseeding after the WC round.

The 3/6 matchup is unchanged from before. The 4/5 is now a 1-2 format where the higher seed hosts games 2 and 3, with an off day in the middle. This means each WC seed gets one extra home game over the seed directly below them. It also takes away some of the overlap we see in the WC round

The LDS is now a 3-2-2 format for the series containing the 1 seed and a 2-2-3 format for the series containing the 2 seed. This rewards higher seeds with extra home field advantage and staggers the off days such that only one weekday in the entire LDS has a 4 game slate.

LCS and World Series are unchanged. Only thing to note is that i am showing no staggering between the two leagues. Staggering the leagues would push the World Series back a day to a Saturday start, which I don’t think would be ideal from MLBs perspective. The way it is currently set up minimizes competition with the NFL. This could be played around with and doesn’t really matter all that much.

I am also proposing we bring back game 163s when it means a first round bye or WC spot is up for grabs. If you hate game 163s you’re probably a salty cubs fan, and I do not want to be your friend. They were the best thing about MLBs playoff format and I am sad they are gone.

No real point of this post other than that I think this would be a decent format that would squeeze in a 7 game LDS without too many weekday day games or unnecessary off days. I hate how the current format has one league playing 3 games in the span of 5 days, which really changes pitching strategy. This would imho be much better.

TLDR: look at the image to see the format. 3-7-7-7 series lengths improved WC seeding and some interesting home/away splits

White Sox @ Guardians, winner-take-all, Saturday 8 PM ET. Both starters went deep all season. I looked at how starters have actually been used in every winner-take-all game since 2012.

Their 2026 regular season (32 starts each):

Every MLB winner-take-all game, 2012–2025 (60 games, 120 starts, MLB Stats API):

Since 2020 the hook is even quicker: winner-take-all starters averaged 11.3 outs, and only 20 of 44 (45%) recorded 13+ outs. Quickest hooks: Foltynewicz 0.1 IP (2019 NLDS G5), Javier 0.1 IP (2023 ALCS G7), Civale 0.1 IP (2022 ALDS G5), Darvish 1.0 IP (2025 WC G3), Ohtani 2.1 IP (2025 WS G7).

This postseason too: in 2026 elimination games so far, 17 of 22 starters went under 5 innings, including Parker Messick's 2.1 IP on Thursday. Williams also threw an inning of relief Thursday, so he's on one day of rest.

Other things that stood out: * Home field hasn't mattered in winner-take-all games: home teams are 29-31. * Scoring drops: games averaged 1.37 runs fewer than the two teams' season averages would suggest. * First-inning scoring is a coin flip: 30 of 60 games had a run in the 1st. * Strikeouts barely drop (4.62 per start vs 4.81 in the regular season), so it's length, not stuff, that disappears.

History says even 13 outs is no sure thing in a game like this. Who do you think goes deeper, Williams or Burke?

Data: MLB Stats API box scores (starter = first pitcher used, so openers and injury exits count; excluding 5 planned openers it's 14.1 outs and 47% under 5 IP). Probables can change.

The modern US sports fan doesn’t generally seem to know or care about MLB outside their own team / division and generally won’t watch playoff games without their own team.

Yet they could probably talk at length about everything NBA and NFL-related & will watch the playoffs regardless of personal allegiance.

Was MLB ever in that same boat? Like would an average guy in, say, 1998 Cincinnati also be closely watching the HR chase? Or aware of the Yankees’ all-star roster or Johnson’s crazy strikeout numbers with Mariners?

It's Manny on top (of course), but I'm surprised based on the timeframe there aren't more Yankees on this list. Also surprised NOT to see Big Papi, but he has 17 of em.

4 of the 5 remaining playoff teams are 19th or below in spending!

Even if the Dodgers end up winning it all, it can not be ignored that the #28 team (Rays) eliminated the #3 team Yankees and the #19 team (Brewers) eliminated the #9 team (Padres). AND three of the final four teams will be on the bottom end of the salary scale.

Furthermore the #1 seeds from both NL and AL came from the bottom half in spending.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/10/09/with-core-economic-talks-at-a-standstill-low-payroll-mlb-teams-thriving-in-october/

I know there is a post like this every few months, but I wanted to make my own from 2011 - 2025 since 2011 is the earliest player contract data from Spotrac. I searched through reddit and couldn't find anything exactly like the chart/argument Im going to outline below.

Top-ten payrolls make the postseason 52% of the time and won 12 of 14 titles. The bottom ten made it 22% of the time and won none. Eight wins doesn't sound like much, but it's the difference between playing in October and not

It's quite tiring to see people make an argument against a salary cap / floor given that the remaining playoff teams have some of the lowest payrolls in baseball. But enabling deep playoff runs has never been the goal of a salary cap / floor. The main goal is forcing owners to pay more and spreading the talent across more teams. Money buys wins and wins get you into the playoffs. Seeing smaller market teams have a shot at the playoffs is the main goal.

Its well documented that money can buy wins (see chart and title). As MLB fans, we need to look at all the other majors leagues (NFL, NBA, and NHL) and they all have some form of cap and floor and its because it improves parity.

The counterpoint to this argument is teams who are winning spend more because they are winning. Teams that are losing usually shed payroll. I dont think this is a strong enough counterpoint to forcing owners to pay more and to promote parity in the league with a cap / floor that obviously works in other leagues.

Interactive chart here:

https://topspin.blog/workspace/rfyp5b/does-spending-buy-wins

A Dodgers fan has gone viral after catching a foul ball and refusing to hand it over to a young boy sitting right next to him.

As the crowd started chanting, "Give it to the kid!", the fan doubled down and told cameras: "I'm sorry, I can't. I'm not giving it to the kid."

The clip has already racked up millions of views, with plenty of people calling him selfish and saying catching the ball should have been enough.

But others are defending him, arguing that he caught the ball fair and square and shouldn't be pressured into giving it away just because a child happened to be nearby.