In the second week of the Philly Sports Stat of the Week, we’ll be looking at those Fightin’ Philadelphia Phillies. The World Series is happening with the Phillies down 3-2 as of this writing but you don’t need me to state that obvious fact especially if you’re reading this site. The Philly Sports Stat of the Week is that the Houston Astros threw 89 four-seam fastballs in Game 4 historic no-hitter. Thanks to Matt Gelb of The Athletic for including the stat in his wrap-up article of Game 3. 

I hate to remind everyone again about it but that number just spun my mind off my shoulders. A World Series team and a National League Champion were no-hit in the World Series on a majority of fastballs. The fastballs accounted for two-thirds of the Astros pitchers on Wednesday night. Seemingly the easiest pitch to hit, the Phillies couldn’t do it on that night in Citizens Bank Park in front of those pumped fans. 

The mind-boggling parts of it were the stark contrast from Game 3 where the team completely mashed 4 home runs to a 7-0 victory and that two of the four pitchers in the combined no-hitter throw that hard. Cristian Javier was painting corners and topping out at 93 mph, Bryan Abreu is one of their flamethrowers with his 97 mph fastball, Rafael Montero throws close to 98 mph consistently, and Ryan Pressly barely touches 95 mph. 

The Philadelphia Phillies made history by being a part of the second no-hitter in World Series history. On top of that, a cool little nugget is that two of the three postseason no-hitters in baseball’s long history have been pitched at Citizens Bank Park right in South Philly. The occurrence is definitely deflating but to quote the great Cliff Lee, “That’s baseball.”