Homers help, too

Homers help, too

I realized after I made my last post that it might have left the impression that home runs aren't important.

That wasn't my point. Perhaps I didn't make well enough that point: Teams need more than home runs to make their offense strong enough to win in the playoffs.

Conversely, it's very difficult to win in the postseason -- or even get there -- without some kind of home run threat.

There's nothing wrong with getting an instant run with a homer. But it's not always easy to hit the ball out of the park against the better pitching staffs you'll see in the playoffs.

And the Giants and Nationals might still be playing if San Francisco 1B Brandon Belt hadn't led off the  top of the 18th with the home run that brought a 2-1 victory. If you look back at a lot of extra-long games in baseball history, they're won by long balls. And not always by the big boppers, but often by someone like Jack Reed or Rick Camp. Google them and if there's anything on the web about them it's probably that home run.

The Dodgers also won last night on CF Matt Kemp's tie-breaking homer.

If you can hit homers AND build big innings by stringing hits, walks and whatever else you can get -- see Baltimore Orioles, 2014 -- you're going to have a better chance to win. You can't just will a home run.

* * *

The Royals-Angels series is reminding me of the best Championship Series no one remembers. That's the 1980 NLCS, which the Phillies won over Houston three games to two. (That was 5 years before that playoff round was stretched to best-of-seven.)

The first two KC-LAA games, plus the Royals' wild card game, have gone to extra innings. The last four games between Philadelphia and the Astros went into overtime. The last three were won by one run. It was nail-biting fun that wasn't duplicated until Houston and the Mets went 16 innings to decide the '86 NLCS -- and there was tragic drama between the Red Sox and Angels in the other league.

Another forgotten feature was a line drive back to the mound that caused great confusion among the players and the umpires. Was it a triple play or only one out? There was no official replay in those days, but the play was resolved when the umpires went to the commissioner's box, where Bowie Kuhn made a ruling: Double play. Huh?

I did take the time to consult Google about that 1980 NLCS and found something else that surprised me. Through five games and 50 innings, there was only one home run, by Phillies LF Greg Luzinski in their 3-1 first-game victory.